I am, frankly, appalled at some of the responses on this thread. I can speak with some experience, gathered over fifty years of being female and involved with folk music, and can assure those men who seem to think this is "scurrilous" or somehow invented that there have been sexual predators in the folk music world for as long as I've known it. This has never been talked about, and names have never been named (as indeed they are not on this thread). Women have just dealt with it and put up with it. If you continue to react with disbelief or anger at those who have been prey to the predators, it will continue and all the men involved will continue to enjoy the unjustifiable privilege that comes simply by being male. Surely we can do better than this in 2020? If you think this thread doesn't belong with the music threads, or if you think it shouldn't be here at all, shame on you and your toxic masculinity. Those of you who know me personally will know I don't usually talk in these terms. I have been supremely blessed by the good male friends I have made over the years, and I am married to a man who is the very antithesis to the men I will continue to call predators. But I can vividly remember some of the encounters I have had, and the heartbreak caused to friends of mine by some of the people concerned.
Sadly, I also know some people here (and on Facebook) dislike any suggestion that their worldview may be restricted and restrictive, and I have experienced before in this forum just how unpleasant their reactions can be - it's one reason I don't post here very much and normally avoid any thread where it's likely to happen. But this is important. I have experienced these sexual predators myself as musicians, club organisers and agents. I know they have been out there for years, and it seems they still are, only now it's a younger generation. If I'm not naming names it's because some of them are no longer with us, and some of them are no longer on the music scene, while some of them are people with whom I have resolved matters to my own satisfaction. But when are men going to own responsibility for their behaviour, and why does it take some brave young women to call it out?
A major difficulty is that the men responsible for this are personable, charming and easy to take at face value. If they weren't, they wouldn't succeed. And of course they are all over our modern society, as they have always been - the folk world isn't unusual or exceptional. What is different about the folk world is we like to think we are more liberal, more tolerant, more aware of social injustice, and so on, which is why it is all the more shocking to find people abusing their fame, or their status, or their position.

And yes, it would be good to name names, but all that would happen then is that some would close ranks around the names and deny it was possible (we can see that in the responses already on this thread) and some of those not named will simply carry on as before. However, what you can do is listen - first, and most importantly, to the women who have experienced this at first hand, and secondly to those men who might at some point brag about their behaviour to you. Be aware. Be very aware, and see what you can do. The women are speaking up - think of what courage that takes, and listen to them.