Since its inception the Songwriters Hall of Fame has honored 439 inductees over the course of its more than 50 years—and only 31 of them women. That cohort will grow in 2022, when Mariah Carey and Annie Lennox will be inducted during the twice pandemic-postponed 51st annual gala, according to Billboard. But there’s still a huge discrepancy, which inspired Janice McLean DeLoatch to helm the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame as a corrective force. DeLoatch—an entrepreneur and songwriter in her own right—happened upon this particular gender discrepancy while researching for a segment on her radio show.
“I just started to notice the statistics and the trend with regard to how women have been left out on a lot of levels,” DeLoatch said over a phone call with Vanity Fair. “I realized the Songwriters awards and policies have barred women from achieving parity in recognition in comparison to male songwriters. The impact is, as many women in the music industry are rarely achieving recognition or accolades. We know that their work represents the heritage and legacy of the world songbook.”
The event, hosted June 25 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., inducted its inaugural class of honorees, including Roberta Flack, Deniece Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tawatha Agee, Naomi Judd, Jeri Keever “Bunny” Hull, Veryl Howard, and Klymaxx—setting the tone for an organization that aims to be “all inclusive…all women and all genres and all categories and all music styles,” DeLoatch says.
“We hope to be an advocate [for] moving the needle forward,” DeLoatch said, “to help put women in positions to be able to be producers and engineers and soundboard operators and CEOs of labels and presidents. We hope to continue to definitely honor and highlight the legacy of the world’s music songbook with dynamic women, with Chaka Khan and Whitney Houston, and those you don’t know or you may know of—there’s a young group of girls, the Linda Lindas!”
DeLoatch counts herself among the Linda Lindas’ fan base (the L.A.–based punk band went viral earlier this year) but laments that there aren’t more young girl ensembles like them. In that spirit of crafting greater opportunity for upcoming artists, multi-hyphenate Dawnn Lewis, another inductee, sponsored the attendance and scholarships for young women pursuing a career in the industry.
“All to continue that legacy of being in the room and being touched by those people who you love, who inspire you, who can encourage you, or maybe just give you a reality check, like, ‘Look, this is not going to be easy. But I can answer some questions,’” Lewis said. “But when you’re in the room, that phrase, ‘When you see it, you can be it’? You hear it so often, but it is so true.”
At a moment when women in music, from Britney Spears to Taylor Swift and Megan Thee Stallion, are demanding their autonomy be recognized and respected, DeLoatch sees her effort as particularly timely: “I know what it’s like to be left out. I know what it’s like to be blocked out. I know what it’s like when you are trying to make a difference, to make things better, heal people. Strange as this is gonna sound, you do have a group of people who don’t want you to make things better.”
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