IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v33y2026i4p1347-1358.html

Women Leading Otherwise? Rethinking Leadership Configurations in the Music Industry Through Keychange

Author

Listed:
  • Matina Magkou
  • Jonathan Price
  • Grace Goodwin

Abstract

Women continue to face systemic barriers to exercising leadership in the music industry. This article critically examines Keychange, a transnational initiative that seeks to transform the industry through talent development advocacy and leadership training for women and gender‐diverse individuals. Drawing on participant interviews and situated within a relational and collective leadership framework, the study explores how leadership in the cultural and creative industries, when approached in relation to women and inequality, is not solely an individual attribute but emerges within the networked configuration of people around a common purpose. These collaborative and affective practices are embedded within relationships of mutual support and shared purpose, offering tangible benefits for individual participants and, potentially, for the sector as a whole. The combination of feminine leadership and feminist approaches provide new and diversified models on how the industry can be led. Conventionally gendered behaviors and tropes remain deeply embedded, however, and it will require sustained activist energy if the tentative gains made to date are to be consolidated through deeper structural transformation. The findings offer insights relevant not only for the design of future leadership programs but also for an academic discourse struggling to articulate the distinctiveness and value of women and leadership in the cultural and creative industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Matina Magkou & Jonathan Price & Grace Goodwin, 2026. "Women Leading Otherwise? Rethinking Leadership Configurations in the Music Industry Through Keychange," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 1347-1358, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:4:p:1347-1358
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.70128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.70128
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.70128?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melissa Carr & Christa Van Raalte, 2025. "Women and Leadership in the Creative Industries: A Commentary," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1709-1714, September.
    2. Robin Steedman & Taylor Brydges, 2023. "Hustling in the creative industries: Narratives and work practices of female filmmakers and fashion designers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 793-809, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Jiangrui, 2025. "Executive risk appetite, investment efficiency, and financial misallocation in film and television enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    2. Anna De Amicis & Lebene Richmond Soga, 2026. "Leading Otherwise: Feminist Instances From the Arts," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 1196-1209, July.
    3. Philip Hancock & Melissa Tyler, 2024. "Live Performers’ Experiences of Precarity and Recognition during COVID-19 and Beyond," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(6), pages 1569-1590, December.
    4. Melissa Carr & Christa Van Raalte, 2025. "Women and Leadership in the Creative Industries: A Commentary," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1709-1714, September.
    5. Moumita Roy & Ayatakshee Sarkar, 2025. "Craft approach to work: a humanist model of work in organizations," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 75(1), pages 557-593, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:4:p:1347-1358. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.