International Women's Day: Moxie, Anja Schneider and Sam Divine

The topic of female DJs and the dance music scene is a never-ending debate involving numbers and rankings, and it's one that the ladies in question tend to ignore, and rightly so, after all, their careers are built on so much more than their gender.

International Women's Day (Tuesday 8th March) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Despite being a minority, some of the world's best DJs are female; Maya Jane Coles, Miss Kittin, B.Traits, Helena Hauff, Annie Mac, The Black Madonna, Nicole Moudaber, to name just a few. 

Women are still underrepresented massively on line-ups around the world. You only need to take a look at an arena breakdown for your favourite festival, or go down the roster for an event near you to be reminded of the lack of females championed by some corners of the industry. It's an area where gender parity could unquestionably be implemented further.

As part of International Women's Day, we revisited a few of Skiddle's interviews with some of our favourite female DJs, with the intention of highlighting their thoughts on the equality of women within the scene and their own past experiences.

Our round up of interviews is less about asking the horrendously predictable and insulting, 'What's it like to be a female DJ?' and more about commemorating of their work, talent and power as influential figures in a demanding and challenging environment, which is often dominated by males.

Moxie

'There are definitely more girls coming through now which is great as I think the more girls that are up there showing it can be done hopefully that will inspire a new generation. Although I will say that if you want to get into DJing you have to be confident about what you do and stand your ground.

'In any industry there will always be arseholes and I've heard some pretty shocking comments made, but you can’t let all those things get to you and have to laugh it off for it to make you stronger. Whenever I hear someone say something sexist, I just think "that’s a shame, you’re not very well educated are you?"'

Read the full interview here: Moxie Interview: Locked In

Anja Schneider 

'The worst thing is DJane, I don't know if you have that over here? In Germany it was always like that. That's terrible. DJane instead of DJ, that's just like the worst thing you can ever say to a girl DJ in my opinion.

'Sometimes I would play to a really great crowd, and someone would come up to me at the end and say, "You're my favourite female DJ." Even though it was meant as a compliment, that's not something you'd ever say to a male DJ. It would be lovely enough to say "You were a good DJ, it was a great night for me."'

Read the full interview here: Anja Schneider Interview: A club half full kind of girl

Sam Divine 

'For me I've worked so hard to be respected as an artist and I've never played that, 'Oh, I'm a female DJ' card. So, no one can say anything to me about it because I'm just an artist and if you've not got respect in this industry you've got nothing.

'You can be the best DJ in the world, you can have the best music and all the rest of it but if you haven't got respect from your peers and your fans then you're nothing. I've never shouted about being a woman or spoke about being a female DJ. It's just like, this is what I do, I play house music, it doesn't matter about my gender.' 

Read the full interview here: A new chapter for Defected's Sam Divine

One female DJ in particular we'd also like to celebrate today is Charlie Hedges, who has become a key component of Skiddle's clubbing make-up lately, presenting our podcast every month, exposing some of the best house music and spotlighting some of our favourite artists. Listen to the Skiddle podcast here.

Feeling the girl power? Check out Skiddle Mix 101 - Jess Bays

Or DJ Love: Maya Jane Coles