RuthAnne Cunningham was the victim of a sexual assault in the music industry in Los Angeles.
The 36-year-old Grammy Award-winning songwriter has revealed that she suffered the shocking assault during her time in Los Angeles and immediately informed management about it.
However, as the incident happened prior to the MeToo movement, RuthAnne doesn't feel it was adequately handled.
She told The Sunday Independent's Life magazine: "The way the record label handled it at the time was very much in keeping with the times. If they handled it the way that they handled it with me now, the label would be finished."
RuthAnne - who has written for Niall Horan, JoJo, John Legend and Britney Spears - also revealed that there is "a lot of misogyny around women in music".
She explained: "There's pressure sometimes like, 'You need to sleep with producers' or 'You need to have sex with that A&R'. I never did any of that. I saw a lot of women around me pressured to do that and it was never my thing.
"Someone said to me, 'You need to act like you'll have sex with them so that they think you will - but you don't have to.' You know, using your sexuality to get further and I didn't. I'm just like, no I don't want to do that just to get a song. I'd rather the song be taken because it's a great song. So I'm seeing that I sometimes hinder my career; and seeing other people advance because they would do that - that was difficult.
"But then, ultimately I've had the success I wanted to have. So I feel like sticking to my guns - and sticking to my own morals in the way I was raised - was better."
