Women are still rarely the ones behind the console. When the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative first studied popular music in 2018, it found that only 2% of producers on Billboard Hot 100 songs from 2012 to 2017 were women.
The latest edition of the study, published in March 2026, shows little has changed. Women made up just 4.4% of producers on the 2025 Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart, down from 5.9% in 2024. Across the 1,100 songs analyzed for producers since 2012, men outnumbered women 27 to 1, and 93.2% of those songs didn’t credit a single woman producer. No women were nominated for Producer of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
To highlight the female music producers behind those numbers, we spoke with Theodora Flygt, a Swedish sound designer known for her film music.
What is it like being a female music producer?
It has been very mixed. Most of the time, I feel appreciated for being a woman. I do meet a lot of men in the music and sound industry that want to have a more equal business and work actively with hiring or recruiting more women to the team, and are therefore very helpful on the way. Sometimes it has been an advantage for me being a woman. But even though people around are very positive, I do have this pressure on myself that I have to succeed twice as good as a man to be accepted. That I have to prove myself somehow, that I am good enough as well. And to reach that feeling I would have to be a lot better than the men around me. I don’t judge them. This is the effect of a long long time of a non equality society. For example if I produce a techno track, I feel like I have to make it double as hard as the male producers, because then maybe I would get a wow.
Why are there so few female music producers?
I think it is only a matter of time until we see a different pattern. Already today is a lot better than 15 years ago. I think it is coming from our old way of living. Maybe that women were more singers and dancers before and a bit sexually objectified. Being a producer was back then technical and something for men. I am happy to see a change. All these changes in society need a lot of time, a change does not come overnight sadly. But I think we are going in the right direction, if even a bit slow.
What needs to change for gender equality in the music industry?
Everyone in this industry has to truly believe that it does not matter what gender you are. It is about a feeling and a talent. The industry also has to try to open up more: book more women, make sure a club night or a festival has 50/50 bookings of men and women. And of course pay them the same amount of money, because that is not always the case today. I would love to see us women cooperate more and help each other. It is sad to admit this, but my experience has sometimes been that there is only space for one woman in one room. So that women can get hard on each other, instead of helping out and being happy that there are two or more women in the room. Stop competing and start cooperating!
How can we improve representation day to day?
Front more women. Like you on Reason are doing, working constantly on trying to get more female producers in the business and then fronting them. And like I mentioned above, make sure the club nights or festival bookings are booked with 50 % men and 50 % women. Even at labels, make sure to sign more women.
Advice for women who want to become music producers
Believe in yourself and your feeling of production. Don’t compare yourself with anyone else, it will be your unique style and feeling that will bring you somewhere in the end.
