Feminism, Domestic Abuse and the Singer-Songwriter

Abstract

This project explores how feminism and domestic abuse can be articulated
through songwriting. Research in music therapy, sociology and popular music
increasingly speaks to the value of songwriting as a tool for personal and
community empowerment, but there is space to actively use songwriting to
explore feminist issues independently of the traditional commercial context of
popular music. Existing feminist music has been deemed as at its most
successful when it is linked clearly to social change in our communities
(Greene, 2017, p.8). Modern popular feminist songwriting has been criticised for
not going far enough in deconstructing systemic patterns of patriarchy (Tong,
2024, p.9). Considering this, engaging with academic research alongside the
process of songwriting has the potential to integrate feminist research into the
songwriting process more explicitly. This project used practice-as-research
(PaR), as well as community-based fieldwork with survivors of domestic abuse,
to contribute to feminist research. The project consisted of two PaR songwriting
projects, Strained Girl and The Liminal Lady, with explanatory essays
elucidating the research behind the work. Three performances of the work took
place with two questionnaires to evaluate the impact of the performances. The
fieldwork, Tuesday Tunes, consisted of five two-hour songwriting workshops
with domestic abuse survivors. Qualitative insights from this fieldwork went onto
inform the second PaR project, The Liminal Lady.

The main contribution to knowledge of this project is that the PaR songwriting
directly engages with feminist academic literature where mainstream
songwriting does not. Additional areas of research include: the framing of
performance as an essential component of the development of PaR
songwriting; the value of field recording in songwriting workshops with
vulnerable participants and PaR music; specific insights on vicarious trauma for
feminist researchers where PaR is a component of the research; and insights
on the potential traumatising effects of PaR songwriting for individuals with lived
experience of abuse.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth
Supervisor	Nuria Bonet (Director of Studies (First Supervisor)) & Julie Parsons (Other Supervisor)