While the charts are currently dominated by female vocalists – from Adele to Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Beyoncé – it’s well-known the music industry is still rife with sexism. Latest to call bullshit on this is Lady Gaga, who criticised the industry at a Billboard Women in Music event last Friday.

“What I really want to say is that it is really hard sometimes for women in music,” she said as she accepted the Woman of the Year award. “It’s like a fucking boys’ club that we just can’t get in to...” According to People, this comment was met with rapturous applause.

“I tried for so long, I just really wanted to be taken seriously as a musician for my intelligence more than my body ever in this business,” she went on to say, before adding, “You don’t always feel like when you’re working that people believe that you have musical background, that you understand what you’re doing because you’re a female.”

“Tonight is so important because women provide a wisdom to music that is very unique and special,” she continued. “It is a perspective that no other person can have because we bear life. And we go through things that no-one goes through and more importantly because it’s right because we’re all equal.”

Gaga is the latest in a string of female artists challenge the industry’s attitudes towards women. Earlier this year, Nicki Minaj shut down an interview with the New York Times after she was asked if she “thrives off drama”. “That’s disrespectful,” she said. “Why would a grown-ass woman thrive off drama?” Similarly, Ariana Grande called out two radio presenters who asked her, “If you could use make-up or your phone one last time, which one would you pick?” “Is this what you think girls have trouble choosing between?” she replied. “Is this men assuming that that’s what girls would have to choose between?"

Whether it’s gender-biased interview questions or other difficulties that Gaga alluded to, it’s clear that sexism is an ongoing issue for the women in the music industry. But equally clear is the fact that more female artists are feeling more empowered to speak out against it. 

h/t People