Beyond the stereotype of the knob-twiddling bloke are brilliant female producers, but gatekeeping, toxic masculinity and a lack of concrete support are holding them back

A good music producer facilitates a studio environment that allows an artist to plunge into the depths of their soul, and cleverly shapes the sound of their music – a bad one, meanwhile, can halt a promising career. But in 2023, 70 years on from the dawn of rock’n’roll, this tremendous power still lies in the hands of an overwhelming majority of men.

Women and non-binary people claimed less than 5% of producer and engineer credits across the top 50 streamed songs of last year, according to a recent report from Fix the Mix . Dated stereotypes have framed producing as the preserve of nerdish knob-twiddling blokes – despite there being ample historic evidence to the contrary.

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Inventive hybrid uses drama and archive video montage to examine the intersections of different liberation struggles

Here is a 1986 film co-directed by radical feminist film-maker Maureen Blackwood with artist-director Isaac Julien. Their sensibilities are a fruitful match here, creating a knotty, complex, self-questioning piece of work: drama, essay movie and video art crossover. Blackwood and Julien were drawing on the black power radicalism of the 60s and the feminism of the 80s in ways that could amount to a British new wave.

In a stylised wilderness, a male and female figure confront each other ill-temperedly: the woman accusing the man of not allowing women any agency or space within the liberation movement. In a parallel realist drama, a family deals with racist abuse (often from off-duty police) and their own ideological and generational splits on the subject of injustice and empowerment, and how gay people of colour find themselves marginalised by the community from which they are hoping for support.

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Keir Starmer says ‘prevention’ is key to ending abuse during roundtable session with experts and celebrities

Labour is considering plans to roll out education for young boys on violence against women and girls (VAWG) in an effort to tackle the epidemic.

Keir Starmer believes “prevention” is extremely important and will play a crucial role in ensuring his party achieves its mission to halve VAWG within a decade.

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Four decades of feminism topped off by #MeToo has laid bare The Mayor of Casterbridge’s back-to-front moral concerns, writes Matthew Pires

Like Adrian Chiles ( What did I learn from Thomas Hardy? Great characters don’t need a back story, 19 April ), I too sat that English O-level on Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge 40 years ago (I got an E), and like him I also re-read it recently. Our impressions diverge, however.

I was struck by the way four decades of feminism, topped off by #MeToo, has laid bare the novel’s back-to-front moral concerns. Michael Henchard is angry, selfish and cruel, but above all he is a misogynist – “something of a woman-hater”, as he himself puts it – and every female who crosses his path comes away scarred.

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For most of us, the key to boosting sexual interest is to find what works your accelerator and what slams on the brakes. Could a new hormone treatment play a part in improving sex lives? Plus debunking the most common low libido myths

Peter had never felt particularly interested in sex. Although he’d had various opportunities throughout his adult life, he had always been surprised at how lacklustre his attitude to these sexual encounters was. Maybe he was tired, he’d drunk too much alcohol, or he was worried about his performance – whatever it was, it hadn’t been a major worry until he met his current partner four years ago.

“For her, that physical connection with men had always been a big thing,” he says. “I wasn’t interested in it to the same level, and this still creates issues in terms of what the other perceives should be the right amount.”

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Greg Williams offered transportation for women seeking out-of-state care after the supreme court’s Dobbs decision last year

About three weeks after the US supreme court last year struck down the federal right to abortion , Greg Williams, a volunteer pilot for a group that provides free flights to people who need to travel for medical care, posted a Facebook message.

“If any women need to make an unexpected trip from the south to, say, Illinois or New Mexico or Virginia for reasons that are none of my business, I can provide safe, private air transport that would get you where you need to go and back the same day at a price that will work for you,” Williams wrote, on 28 June 2022.

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Helen Pidd always thought she would have children, but after three unsuccessful rounds of IVF, she reimagines her life with the help of people who are childfree by choice

Helen Pidd , the Guardian’s north of England editor, had always wanted to be a mother. The moment she realised that her third round of IVF had failed was devastating.

“I couldn’t see beyond how sad I felt,” she tells Hannah Moore .

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A lack of equal male partners, rather than career or educational ambitions, is why more women are trying to prolong their fertility

Selfish career-driven women. Gullible dupes of the fertility industry. Victims of the patriarchy. When leading anthropologist Marcia C Inhorn first embarked on her decade-long study of why women freeze their eggs , the popular narrative was largely one of derision.

“There was a lot of either blaming women or saying that they’re naïve, stupid and so forth,” says the Yale professor, from a red armchair in her home in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Fake perfumes and restricted items are being touted on social media platform despite bans

TikTok is profiting from the sale of illegal and potentially dangerous beauty products, including counterfeit cosmetics and prescription-only skin creams, despite claiming to take a “zero tolerance” approach to rogue sellers.

Counterfeit versions of Dior perfumes, Vaseline lip balms and Maybelline mascaras are among products being touted by third-party vendors via TikTok’s in-app marketplace.

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