Los Angeles, CA (March 18, 2026)—Inclusion in the Recording Studio, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s annual study, finds that women’s participation in music has plateaued.
The study—authored by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Karla Hernandez and Sam Wheeler and published annually—examines 1,400 popular songs over the period 2012 to 2025. In 2025, the study concludes, “there was no progress for women in music.”
Digging into the figures, from 2024 to 2025, women’s participation in the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts decreased: from 37.7% to 36.1% among women artists; from 5.9% to 4.4% among producers; from 18.9% to 14.5% among songwriters; and from 22.7% to 19.3% among women Grammy nominees across six key categories. It’s too early to tell if these trends will continue, of course.
As the study notes, “Despite reaching a 12-year high in 2023, the percentage of women producers was still below 10%, which indicates that much more change is needed.” The ratio of men to women producers was 27 to 1, the study found, as measured across 1,100 popular songs on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts from 2012, 2015 and 2017-2025.
No woman has ever won a Grammy Award for producer of the year, non-classical, the study points out. It should be noted, however, that women have won the Grammy for classical music producer of the year—outside the scope of USC Annenberg’s study—on numerous occasions, and multiple times. Just nine women have been nominated for a producer of the year, non-classical Grammy since the category was introduced in 1975, most recently in 2025.
• USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Releases 2025 Report
Two headlines stand out. “Women producers are still in the single digits,” the report says, with women producers making up just 4.4% of all producers in 2025, down from a high of 6.7% in 2023. Further, “women of color are invisible as producers,” the study states. Across the 11 years studied, just 25 out of 2,451 production credits went to women of color.
Following a low of 31.6% in 2013, people of color have accounted for more than half of the artists represented in the 1,400 songs studied since 2017. The percentage peaked in 2023 at 61%, and in 2025 bounced back to 57.8% after a dip to 44.6% in 2023. Across the 14 years studied, people of color accounted for 49% of artists, 36.9% of them men and 12.4% women.
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Progress “has halted” for women solo artists, the study also finds. Women accounted for 34.5% of all solo artists on the charts in 2025, versus 38.9% the previous year and 2023’s high of 40.6%. The study notes, “The highest-ranking male artist had double the number of credits compared to the highest-ranking woman.” There was one bright spot: the study also found that “2025 marked a record high for women appearing as members of bands.”