Beats aren't gendered. So why are we still in the dark ages when it comes to gender equality in the music studio? Women represent less than 5% of music producers and engineers, something that Grimes recently highlighted in a tweet responding to a Guardian piece about the sexual assault and emotional abuse allegations recently leveraged by Kesha against Dr, Luke. Unfortunately, it's a story that's disturbingly familiar in relation to the female performer/male producer dynamic.

Yes, the music industry—like every industry on this patriarchal planet—is sexist. That is not news. But this means we're missing out on a whole world of sounds, stories, and perspectives. If you'll allow me to go a lil' Virginia Woolf for a second, if the vast majority of music that surrounds us is produced by men, then most of the music we document will be music that is produced by men, which is how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.

The hunger for change is there, and crucially at a mainstream level: Kelly Rowland told us she couldn't be more excited to be collaborating with a woman—LA producer Tokimonsta—on her new project, and J Dilla's mom Ma Dukes reminded us that "music is universal; you don't have to speak a certain language to understand what you get from music." So what's up with our current situation? Are women simply less interested than men in being producers, or is society not providing the support? The FADER spoke with 13 producers, who also happen to be women, about the challenges faced by women in production and engineering, and what they think can be done to make things better.



