Last summer, I wrote about the lack of women in the music business. My blog caused a stir among female A&Rs in the UK (there are now around 26 of them). Though I certainly didn't mean to ignore or belittle women who are working in the business, the upside was that I got to meet some inspiring women who are carving out successful careers in A&R as a result. However, the fact is that a survey published at the time showed that, while there are plenty of female artists, the majority of people working behind the scenes are still male (66%). In London, women represent only 30%. Another staggering statistic is that 47% of women in the music industry earn less than £10,000, compared with 35% of men, which may go some way to explain why there are even fewer of them in London, due to the high cost of living.

When it comes to the executive and management level it's almost all male. Jon Webster, chief executive of the Music Managers Forum, tells me that only around 15% of their members are female. Only 6% of women in the business earn more than £29,000 compared with 22% of men.

I've discovered that I'm not the only person bothered – and puzzled – by these figures. The other week, Alison Wenham, CEO and chairman of the Association of Independent Music (AIM) called a meeting at London club Cargo to address the issue. At the event, she interviewed Jeannette Lee, co-founder and joint director of Rough Trade (the company has been integral to the careers of Pulp, the Smiths, the Strokes, and Duffy, among others). Most people still think her business partner Geoff Travis is the sole head of the company, which she partly attributes to her reluctance to be in the spotlight. "I don't like to do interviews. I just like to get on with things," said Lee.

I think quite a few women can relate to this lack of desire to be the centre of attention, and it may partly explain why women like Estelle Axton, the co-founder of Stax Records, rarely get proper acknowledgment. But to this day there's also a certain sexism that exists in the music business. "When I walk into a room, people naturally assume I'm Geoff's PA or his girlfriend," says Lee. I can relate. I've stood with a group of men at a music convention when a female artist approached us, giving everyone except me a copy of her CD. Another attendee who worked at a label said she had been told they wanted female A&R scouts as they could "flirt their way into tips".

Then there's the issue of children. This, of course, is an issue that women in many other professions battle with (the financial institutions come to mind), but many jobs in the music industry also requires spending late nights at gigs in other cities. Lee spoke of frequently driving back at 3am, way after her children's bedtime, and then going to work in the morning. She added that, even though she sometimes sat crying in her car on her way in to work, her now-teenage kids are proud of what she's achieved.

After the event, I spoke to Anna Harvey, who's a business development manager for Silva Screen Records, a songwriter and a producer/remixer, and she said that being a single mother of two had impacted severely on her career. "The entertainment industry demands a high level of travel and out-of-hours work. It is not a matter of whether your kids mind or not, but whether you have enough money to pay for a nanny." The 94% of women who earn less than £29,000 – and the nearly half who earn less than £10,000 – would most likely have difficulties affording childcare without a second breadwinner in the family.

So what can be done? When I asked the Music Producers' Guild to speak to one of their female members, I was told that the person they had asked was tired of being rolled out yet again to speak on behalf of the few women producers. "People don't want to be the one person that always raises their hand about it," says Wenham. "There is too much strain on too few people."

Julie Weir, founder and director of indie label Visible Noise (Lost Prophets, Bullet for My Valentine), who also spoke at the Cargo event, said women need to carve out their own positions and have self-determination. She said that she wanted to employ more women, but the fact was that most of the ones applying for the jobs had not been as fiery and dedicated as the men she had interviewed.

Incidentally, Rough Trade employs eight women and four men. Lee and Travis stress that it's not because of "positive discrimination" – they simply employed the best people for the job.

To be able to change the status quo, we have to get to the bottom of the reasons why, in 2010, we haven't progressed (looking at this Great Escape list of speakers, I count 100 men and 17 women). Wenham says AIM has mentoring programmes, but there aren't any funds for executive pan-industry programmes.

I, for one, would love to see a music industry that reflects the general population – in gender, age and ethnicities. Would the musical landscape and the way artists are promoted and marketed be different? Would the music industry be better off for it? I think it would.

Women Make Music: Female Music Creators and the Gender Gap, Kings Place, 24 May, 7pm

