In the week after the Grammy Awards, the condemnations came swiftly for Neil Portnow, the president of the Recording Academy, for saying that women in music needed to “step up” to advance their careers. Within days, artists like Pink and Kelly Clarkson spoke out, and a group of lawyers and talent managers called for Mr. Portnow to resign.

Yet one important contingent of the business has been conspicuously silent: the top women executives at the major record labels and music publishers.

No more.

In a joint letter signed by six of the industry’s most powerful women addressed to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees, the executives call the organization “woefully out of touch with today’s music, the music business, and even more significantly, society,” and say that the academy, which presents the Grammys, needs to become more inclusive and transparent.

The letter, sent to the board on Monday and obtained by The New York Times, was signed by Michele Anthony, an executive vice president at the Universal Music Group; Jody Gerson, the chief executive of Universal’s publishing arm; Julie Greenwald, the co-chairman of Atlantic Records; Sylvia Rhone, the president of Epic Records; Julie Swidler, the general counsel of Sony Music; and Desiree Perez, the chief operating officer of Roc Nation.