In Honor of International Women’s Day, USC Annenberg Study Shows “Little Progress” for Women in Popular Music

As March 8th, 2021 marked another year of International Women’s Day, a study released by USC Annenberg showed that there is “little to celebrate” when it comes to women in music. The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has conducted annual studies on how the music industry has progressed regarding increasing women representation.

Analyzing information from Billboard’s Top 100 Year-End charts from the past nine years, the study revealed that only 21.6% of artists featured between 2012 and 2020 were female. On a much finer scale, only 20.2% of artists from 2020’s Top 100 Chart were female, further proving that there has been no significant change in the music industry regarding allowing female artists’ voices to be heard. The conductor of the study, Stacy L. Smith says, “​It is International Women’s Day everywhere, except for women in music, where women’s voices remain muted.”

Graphic by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

The good news is that what the music industry lacks in female representation, they improved in underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. 59% of artists from 2020’s charts were artists of color, and throughout the nine year study, it was concluded that 46.7% of these artists across 900 songs were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. This marks a notable increase since 2013, where the statistics showed only 31.2% of artists of color represented in the charts.

However, as an industry we must continue working to make space for the voices of female creatives. Similar to the study we examined in our previous article​ Exposing the Divide​, ​this new study showed that once again, women are represented at very low percentages as artists (21.6%), songwriters (12.6%), and especially producers, in which they only make up 2.6%. Additionally, after examining past Grammy nominations including the upcoming 2021 Grammy event, the study found that only 13.4% of Grammy nominees were women. Thus, further emphasizing the gender gap in the music industry.

Graphic by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

As the music industry continues to evolve in the future, one area in which it can significantly improve is increasing representation of women, and specifically women of color in all areas of the field. To learn more about the study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, you can view the article and results of the study ​here​.