Sound Women Bristol CIC working with young women and girls to create safe spaces.

 

In the last 3 years Sound Women Bristol CIC have delivered many different workshops aimed at young women and girls to gain skills in audio technology from radio, podcasting, media and music.  By creating a fun and exciting opportunity we realised we could connect with young women in the City who have been massively affected by changes in society particularly since the Pandemic and now the epidemic of violence and knife crime in the city of Bristol.

 

With thanks to several funders and in particular Quartet, we were able to deliver workshops across the city to women and girls from marginalised backgrounds.

Audio technology is a field in which women remain significantly underrepresented: recent studies show that women comprise only 7% of the audio industry workforce, and 10% of UK music technology with huge underrepresentation at live music events. Sound Women Bristol (SWB) research, has explored means of enhancing collaborative learning and creativity within audio industries including radio, podcasting and music technology which has generated a range of initiatives that directly address this underrepresentation. Sound Women Bristol (SWB) research has explored means of enhancing collaborative learning and creativity within audio industries including radio, podcasting and music technology which has generated a range of initiatives to support women as a minority in these industries. Through SWB and related engagement activities that is actioning and ensuring  changing attitudes and behaviours by collaborating with a number of other partners and with SWB’s connections with leading industry bodies, including a network of community radio stations across UK like Ujima Radio, and support of local BBC plus numerous local community groups. It has also been a catalyst for spin-off grassroots enterprise initiatives in the community and afforded opportunities for women in the industry to be engaged to deliver the training helping and contributing to the development of audio industries, skills, industry knowledge and new career aspirations of girls and women across the Southwest.

Developing confidence, skills and aspirations for girls and women in audio technology and industries, our research on best way to do this including talking to numerous established community groups, SWB members, industry  leaders, youth workers and the results of the work we have done and in particular to last year’s work we did thanks to the Quartet Express Fund which sparked a series of many more workshops and to collaborative learning which stresses the importance of confidence, achieved through the opportunies that SWB provide and the creation of a community of peers. SWB activities have demonstrably built confidence amongst the hundreds of women and girls that have taken part in our events, far more that we intended, including training workshops, providing safe spaces which includes opportunities for training but not mandatory, networking and specific training in private sector that the equipment that this grant funded which meant SWB could really make a difference when had previously lacked access to equipment.

 

Participant feedback shows that the creation of a relatable community that reduces perceptions of inequality and is key to this empowerment, as providing safe spaces at a time when in Bristol has so much knife crime, our research revealed young women/girls too scared to even walk to the shop or go to football practice or similar hobbies and passions, due to the amount of stabbings and misidentifications. Participants at a SWB workshops remarked that ‘just seeing so many females interested in podcasts and music is something that I had never experienced before’ and reported that they had ‘never experienced a sense of community like this.

One feedback form noted how the workshop leaders ‘made me feel that I could be at ease because I didn’t have to do things when I didn’t feel confident doing them. I could slowly build my confidence’.

A SWB survey of 21 of workshop participants found that 88% had become more comfortable sharing ideas, 85% were more comfortable about taking speaking up and using their voice and audio to give them a voice, and 86% felt that belonging to a community had improved self-confidence about knowledge and skills in music technology.

This increased confidence has supported participants in SWB activities to develop a huge range of professional technical skills, encompassing recording on location, recording at home, how to create a professional sound when have no budget eg using a Smartphone. Plus editing, social media, DJing, radio presenter, desk training, social media and sound design. A participant in the one of the SWB sessions at Basement youth club said they enjoyed ‘learning to use the equipment and having a go experimenting with it and would never have been able to access this equipment otherwise’.

Participants commented on the value of ‘being able to use industry standard equipment along with being taught how to use it proficiently’, and how ‘all of the sessions taught me new skills and widened my knowledge of radio, podcasting, DJ-ing, music and media.

Respondents to the survey of adult group members singled out new practical skills they had learned, including using phones as microphones, recording sound, and using audio production software that was free and available to anyone to use. These experiences are changing women’s and girls’ aspirations for the future.

 

Other feedback included on how they are ‘taking away … new ideas, contacts and a better understanding on how to start a podcast from scratch and possibly even a career, and how they ‘learned very useful tips and advice about breaking into the industry and having confidence within myself and everything needed to make a podcast from recording, editing and then promoting it on podcast platforms and social media, I didn’t even know what a podcast really was when first went and now I can make one all on my own’.

Respondents to the survey of adult group members highlighted their new understanding of work opportunities and ‘how to develop my career in this area’ as central benefits of their involvement.

Changed aspirations are especially significant for girls and young women involved in SWB activities. Participation in the regular SWB events and meet ups forged an enthusiasm for further learning and podcast making, plus women who had never met before started to work together and collaborate on projects: attendees expressed their intention to ‘continue with using Audacity and find more stories and women to work with and create series of podcasts; ‘test out recording on my own at home’; and ‘learn more about options to record using different free softwares’ that SWB introduced them too.

One workshop in particular inspired the creation of a new peer support group for women and non-binary people interested in podcasting. New career aspirations were also seeded: attendees remarked on how ‘I would love to become a podcaster and ‘it’s made me think about getting into radio and DJing more seriously’.

Other verbal feedback included: ‘it’s really fun doing this, so if you were doing it for a career then it would be even more fun’; ‘before this activity, if I was listening to the radio… I would never think maybe I could do that or even how to do it … and now I’ve done it I think I will as SWB introduced us to local community radio stations that are looking for volunteers, never in a million years did I think I would have a chance like this’; and even that the experience ‘feels like you’re doing something that could change the world!’

 

We continue to work with young women and girls and not always advertised so if you would like to find out more please don’t hesitate to contact us:

soundwomensouthwest@gmail.com