Women were 36.1% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart in 2025 but just 4.4% of its credited producers, a 27-to-1 ratio of men to women behind the console across 14 years of tracking (USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026). The gap runs through every layer of the industry: women and non-binary people held only 6.7% of key technical credits on 2022’s top-streamed songs (Fix the Mix, 2023), female acts were 26.9% of electronic festival lineups (female:pressure, FACTS 2022), and 51% of UK women musicians report experiencing gender discrimination at work, versus 6% of men (Musicians’ Census, 2023). This analysis consolidates data from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Fix the Mix, the UK Musicians’ Census, female:pressure, and 5 other primary sources to map where women in music stand in 2026.
TL;DR
- Women were 36.1% of charting artists in 2025, statistically flat versus the 2024 record of 37.7% (USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026).
- Across 1,400 popular songs from 2012 to 2025, women were 24.7% of artists, 13.9% of songwriters, and 3.6% of producers (USC Annenberg, 2026).
- 55% of the 1,400 songs studied had no woman songwriter; fewer than 1% had only women writers (USC Annenberg, 2026).
- Women and non-binary people held 6.7% of key technical credits on the top 10 streamed tracks across five major platforms in 2022 (Fix the Mix, 2023).
- In metal, 0.0% of key technical credits went to women or non-binary people; in rap, men held 98.7% of all technical credits (Fix the Mix, 2023).
- Female acts reached 26.9% of electronic music festival lineups in 2020-2021, up from 9.2% in 2012 (female:pressure, FACTS 2022).
- Only 13% of UK festival headliners in 2022 were women (BBC analysis, 2022).
- Women earned 15.4% of Grammy nominations in six major categories from 2013 to 2026, and only 2 Producer of the Year nominations in 14 years (USC Annenberg, 2026).
- Women are 53.8% of the surveyed UK music industry workforce and 48.3% of its senior leaders, up from 40.4% in 2020 (UK Music Diversity Report 2024).
- UK women musicians average 19,850 pounds a year from music versus 21,750 pounds for men (Musicians’ Census, 2023).
- 3 in 5 women in the global music industry have experienced sexual harassment, and over 70% of incidents go unreported (BE THE CHANGE 2024).
1. Women on the Charts: Artists
The headline number looks like progress until you zoom out. The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which has tracked the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts since 2012, titled its March 2026 finding bluntly: women’s participation has plateaued. Across 2,576 artists on 1,400 popular songs from 2012 to 2025, women were 24.7%, a 3-to-1 ratio of men to women that two record-setting years failed to move. Genre determines much of the picture: women are 36.9% of credited artists in pop but 16.1% in hip-hop, and for another consecutive year they held zero credits in Musica Mexicana. The one record set in 2025 came from bands, where women were 41.9% of credited members, driven largely by the fictional girl group from the film K-Pop Demon Hunters, a crossover phenomenon covered in our K-pop statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women among charting artists (2025) | 36.1% (53 of 147) | USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026 |
| Women among charting artists (2024, record high) | 37.7% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among artists, 2012-2025 total | 24.7% of 2,576 (3 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among artists in 2012 | 22.7% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women artists in Pop vs Hip-Hop | 36.9% vs 16.1% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among solo performers (2025) | 34.5%, down from 40.6% peak in 2023 | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among credited band members (2025, record) | 41.9% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women of color share of all artists, 14 years | 12.4% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
Note: the highest-ranking man (Drake, 58 chart credits) has more than double the credits of the highest-ranking woman (Nicki Minaj, 27). For the revenue and streaming context behind these charts, see our music industry statistics.
2. Songwriters and Producers: The Credit Gap
Behind the microphone, the numbers collapse. USC Annenberg’s 2026 report counted 498 songwriting credits on the 2025 year-end chart and found women held 14.5% of them, erasing most of the gains from the 2023 peak of 19.5%. Across 14 years and 6,652 songwriters, women were 13.9%, and more than half of all songs studied, 55%, listed no woman songwriter at all. Production is worse: women were 4.4% of the 252 credited producers in 2025, and just 25 of 2,451 producing credits across the sample went to women of color, a ratio of 94.5 men for every 1 underrepresented woman. Concentration compounds the gap: 11 male songwriters were credited on 21.7% of every song in the sample, while 62% of the 42 women who ever earned a producing credit got exactly one.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women songwriters (2025) | 14.5% of 498 credits | USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026 |
| Women songwriters, 2012-2025 total | 13.9% of 6,652 (6.2 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Peak year for women songwriters (2023) | 19.5% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Songs with no woman songwriter, 14 years | 55% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Songs with only women songwriters | <1% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women producers (2025) | 4.4% of 252 credits | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women producers, 1,100 songs (2012-2025) | 3.6% (27 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Producing credits to women of color | 25 of 2,451 (94.5 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Top man vs top woman songwriter, career credits | 58 vs 25 | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
Note: songs with no male songwriters were 0.8% of the entire sample, 10 songs out of 1,400. Taylor Swift (13 credits) and Ariana Grande (10) are the most-credited women producers, and most women producers also performed on the songs they produced.
3. Behind the Board: Engineering and Technical Credits
Engineering is the least visible tier and the most closed. The inaugural Fix the Mix report, published in 2023 by We Are Moving The Needle with Howard University and MTSU using Jaxsta credit data across 1,128 songs, remains the most detailed audit available. Women and non-binary people held 6.7% of key technical credits, 16 out of 240, on the top 10 streamed tracks of 2022 across the five biggest streaming platforms. On the RIAA Diamond top 50, the share falls to 1.6%; on Spotify’s Billions Club top 50, 2.0%. The report’s sharpest finding is structural: assistant roles carry 12.6 percentage points more women and non-binary people than key roles on average, evidence of a qualified pipeline that stalls before the top credit. UK survey data mirrors the credits: just 2% of women musicians report working as studio or mastering engineers (Musicians’ Census 2023).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women/non-binary share of key technical credits, top 10 tracks x 5 DSPs (2022) | 6.7% (16 of 240) | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Key technical credits in Metal / Rap / Christian & Gospel | 0.0% / 0.7% / 0.8% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Share of all technical credits held by men in rap top 50 | 98.7% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Electronic genre, women/non-binary producer credits (highest) | 17.6% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Assistant roles vs key roles, women/non-binary gap | +12.6 percentage points | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Key technical credits on UMG / Sony / Warner distributed top songs | 4.1% / 6.4% / 3.1% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| RIAA Diamond top 50 / Spotify Billions top 50 key technical credits | 1.6% / 2.0% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| UK women musicians working as studio/mastering engineers | 2% (live sound: 2%) | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
Note: Fix the Mix analyzed 2022 releases and is the most recent edition available. The same technical-credit gap shapes adjacent fields, from film scoring to interactive audio, quantified in our game audio industry statistics.
4. Electronic Music, DJs, and Festival Stages
Electronic music shows the fastest measured improvement and the longest remaining distance. The female:pressure FACTS survey, which has counted festival lineups since 2012, logged 6,015 acts across 159 electronic festival editions in 109 festivals for its 2022 edition. Female acts nearly tripled their share in a decade, from 9.2% of electronic festival lineups in 2012 to 26.9% in 2020-2021, yet men still outnumber women on those stages more than 2 to 1. Money and geography matter: publicly funded festivals booked 33.4% female acts versus 20.3% at non-publicly funded events, and European lineups (30.6%) run ahead of North American ones (22.2%). At the top of the bill the ceiling is lower, with a BBC analysis finding women were only 13% of UK festival headliners in 2022. The tools pipeline lags too: women are 15% of users on AlphaTheta’s DJ platforms, per the IMS Business Report 2025.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Female acts on electronic festival lineups (2020-2021) | 26.9% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Female acts in 2012 | 9.2% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Male / non-binary / mixed acts (2020-2021) | 59.1% / 1.3% / 9.1% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| European vs North American festival lineups, female acts | 30.6% vs 22.2% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Publicly funded vs non-publicly funded festivals, female acts | 33.4% vs 20.3% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Acts analyzed since 2012 | 45,104 across 48 countries | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Women among UK festival headliners (2022) | 13% | BBC, 2022 |
| Female share of AlphaTheta DJ platform users | 15%, up from 13% in 2023 | IMS Business Report 2025 |
| Organizations signed to the Keychange 50:50 pledge | 700+ | Keychange |
Note: FACTS 2022 covers the 2020-2021 festival cycle and is the most recent published edition; the project’s cumulative dataset spans 833 festival editions. Only 3% of UK women musicians report working as DJs at all (Musicians’ Census, 2023).
5. Awards and Recognition: Grammy Data
Awards are where the industry says what it values, and the numbers moved backward this year. USC Annenberg’s 2026 analysis covers 187 nominees across six major Grammy categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Producer of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year. Women took 19.3% of major-category Grammy nominations in 2026, down from 22.7% in 2025, and just 15.4% of all 2,987 nominations issued since 2013. The extremes tell the story: 2026 set a record with women earning 62.5% of Best New Artist nominations, while Album of the Year fell to a single-digit 6.8% for the first time in 8 years and Producer of the Year again included zero women. In 14 years, exactly 2 women have ever been nominated for Producer of the Year. Winners skew further: women are 13.2% of winners across all years studied.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women among major-category Grammy nominees (2026) | 19.3% of 187 | USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026 |
| Women among nominees, 2013-2026 total | 15.4% (460 of 2,987) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women Producer of the Year nominations in 14 years | 2 | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Best New Artist nominations to women (2026, record) | 62.5% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Album of the Year nominations to women (2026) | 6.8% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Songwriter of the Year nominations to women (4 years) | 61.1% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among Grammy winners (2026 / 2013-2026) | 16.7% / 13.2% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
Note: at the 65th Grammy Awards, the eight categories honoring technical roles recognized 30 men and 1 woman, and 17 of 28 genre-winning albums credited zero women or non-binary people in key technical roles (Fix the Mix, 2023).
6. Workforce, Pay, and Safety
Off stage, the industry workforce is close to gender parity on headcount and far from it on money and safety. The UK Music Diversity Report 2024 puts women at 53.8% of surveyed industry workers and 48.3% of senior leaders, up from 40.4% in 2020, but representation drops with every age band after 45. The Musicians’ Census 2023, which surveyed 5,867 UK musicians including 2,526 women, found women average 19,850 pounds a year from music against 21,750 pounds for men, and hold just 19% of the top income bracket. 51% of women musicians report experiencing gender discrimination at work versus 6% of men, 32% have been sexually harassed while working versus 5% of men, and only 11% of those incidents were ever reported. The global picture matches: the BE THE CHANGE 2024 study of 4,100+ music professionals across 133 countries found 3 in 5 women have experienced sexual harassment.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women in the surveyed UK music industry workforce | 53.8% | UK Music Diversity Report 2024 |
| Women in senior music industry roles (2020 to 2024) | 40.4% to 48.3% | UK Music Diversity Report 2024 |
| Women at entry level vs age 55-64 | 61.5% vs 39.2% | UK Music Diversity Report 2024 |
| Average annual music income, UK women vs men | 19,850 vs 21,750 pounds | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women among UK musicians earning 70,000+ pounds | 19% | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women experiencing gender discrimination (vs men) | 51% vs 6% | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women sexually harassed while working (vs men) | 32% vs 5% | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women worldwide who experienced sexual harassment | 3 in 5 | BE THE CHANGE 2024 |
| Women twice as likely to discover pay gaps (vs men) | 35% vs 17% | BE THE CHANGE 2024 |
Note: 88% of UK women musicians say their career has been restricted in at least one way, 28% carry primary caring responsibilities versus 20% of other musicians, and women fall to 26% of musicians aged 55 and older. Only 16% of men in the global industry see it as gender-discriminatory, versus 50% of women (BE THE CHANGE 2024). The same perception gap shows up in adjacent creative fields, documented in our women in gaming statistics.
Summary: Women in Music by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Women among charting artists (2025) | 36.1% | USC Annenberg, Inclusion in the Recording Studio 2026 |
| Women among artists, 2012-2025 | 24.7% (3 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women songwriters (2025 / 14-year total) | 14.5% / 13.9% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Songs with no woman songwriter | 55% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women producers (2025 / total) | 4.4% / 3.6% (27 to 1) | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Producing credits to women of color | 25 of 2,451 | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among Grammy nominees, 2013-2026 | 15.4% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women Producer of the Year nominations, 14 years | 2 | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women among Grammy winners, 2013-2026 | 13.2% | USC Annenberg, 2026 |
| Women/non-binary key technical credits, top streamed songs | 6.7% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Key technical credits in metal | 0.0% | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Assistant-role vs key-role representation gap | +12.6 points | Fix the Mix, 2023 |
| Female acts on electronic festival lineups (2012 to 2020-21) | 9.2% to 26.9% | female:pressure, FACTS 2022 |
| Women among UK festival headliners (2022) | 13% | BBC, 2022 |
| Female share of AlphaTheta DJ platform users | 15% | IMS Business Report 2025 |
| Women in UK music senior leadership | 48.3% | UK Music Diversity Report 2024 |
| UK women musicians’ average income vs men | 19,850 vs 21,750 pounds | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women experiencing gender discrimination (vs men) | 51% vs 6% | Musicians’ Census, 2023 |
| Women who experienced sexual harassment (global) | 3 in 5 | BE THE CHANGE 2024 |
| Organizations signed to Keychange 50:50 pledge | 700+ | Keychange |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating figures directly from primary reports, academic studies, and named survey releases published in 2022-2026, cross-referencing overlapping metrics across two or more sources and flagging any dataset older than 2024 as the most recent available.
- USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Inclusion in the Recording Studio? (2026 edition, 1,400 songs 2012-2025) (Mar 2026)
- USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative research hub
- Fix the Mix Report 2023, We Are Moving The Needle / Howard University / MTSU, with Jaxsta credit data (Apr 2023)
- We Are Moving The Needle, Fix the Mix
- female:pressure, FACTS Survey 2022 (159 festival editions, 6,015 acts) (2022)
- Musicians’ Census 2023, Women Musicians Insight Report (Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union, 5,867 respondents) (Mar 2024)
- UK Music Diversity Report 2024 (2024)
- IMS Business Report 2025 (International Music Summit / MIDiA Research) (2025)
- BE THE CHANGE 2024 (TuneCore / Believe with MIDiA Research, 4,100+ respondents in 133 countries) (2024)
- Keychange, 50:50 pledge and Pledge Report 2023-2025
- BBC, festival headliner gender analysis (2022)
Data watch: USC Annenberg updates Inclusion in the Recording Studio annually each winter, so a 2027 edition covering 2026 charts is expected in early 2027; female:pressure publishes FACTS on a multi-year cycle, with a new edition anticipated; UK Music’s Diversity Report is biennial, due again in late 2026; the Musicians’ Census runs as a long-term tracking study with new insight reports ongoing; and IMS, Keychange, and BE THE CHANGE publish on annual or multi-year cycles.
Last updated: July 20, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.