Emerging Women in UK Electronic Music: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

TL;DR

Women remain underrepresented in electronic music — making up roughly 5-15% of festival lineups. But initiatives like EQ50, Shesaid.so, and female:pressure, combined with a wave of brilliant emerging talent, are slowly shifting the balance. The scene needs structural change, not just tokenism.

The Numbers Don't Lie

The gender imbalance in electronic music is stark. Research from female:pressure (a network of women and non-binary people in electronic music) consistently shows that women make up only 10-15% of electronic music festival lineups globally. In some sub-genres — particularly techno and bass music — the figure drops to 5%.

This isn't because women aren't making electronic music. They are — in increasing numbers and to increasingly high standards. The barrier is structural: booking practices, networking dynamics, media coverage, and industry culture all contribute to a system that underrepresents women.

The pipeline problem is also real. Fewer women are entering electronic music production, partly because the culture doesn't always feel welcoming and partly because the visible role models are disproportionately male. When a young woman considering electronic music production looks at festival lineups and magazine features, the message is clear: this is a male space.

The Artists Changing the Conversation

Despite the structural challenges, the current generation of women in UK electronic music is extraordinarily talented and increasingly impossible to overlook.

From DJs pushing the boundaries of club music to producers creating genre-defying sonic art, women are at the cutting edge of every electronic music sub-genre. The diversity of their approaches — from minimal techno to jungle, from ambient to gabber — makes any attempt to generalise about 'women in electronic music' reductive. They're artists first, defined by their creativity, not their gender.

What's notable about the current wave is their visibility and confidence. Previous generations of women in electronic music often felt pressure to downplay gender or avoid being seen as 'women in music' rather than simply musicians. The current generation is more likely to address the imbalance directly while simultaneously refusing to be defined by it.

Initiatives Making a Difference

Several organisations are working to address the structural imbalances in electronic music.

EQ50 promotes gender equality in dance music through networking events, workshops, and direct engagement with festival bookers. Their influence on booking practices — encouraging festivals to set diversity targets and providing visibility for underrepresented artists — has had measurable impact.

Shesaid.so is a global community of women and gender minorities in music, providing networking, professional development, and visibility. Their data-driven approach to highlighting gender imbalance — publishing annual statistics on festival lineups — has kept the conversation alive and created accountability.

DJ workshops specifically for women and non-binary people — run by organisations like Girls I Rate, Black Girl Fest, and numerous local initiatives — address the pipeline problem by creating welcoming entry points into electronic music culture.

Mentorship programmes connecting emerging women producers with established professionals provide the guidance and network access that informal, male-dominated networks have historically provided for men.

What Needs to Change

Tokenism isn't the answer. Booking one woman on a 20-artist lineup and calling it progress is insulting. Genuine change requires structural shifts in how lineups are curated, how artists are discovered, and how the culture responds to gender diversity.

Bookers need to actively seek out women and non-binary artists, not wait for them to submit. The talent exists — the discovery mechanisms are biased. Blind booking (where artist submissions are evaluated without identifying information) has been trialled at some festivals with promising results.

Media coverage needs to normalise women's presence rather than treating it as novel. A review of a woman DJ's set shouldn't lead with her gender — it should lead with the music. The persistent framing of women in electronic music as an exception rather than a norm perpetuates the imbalance.

And men in electronic music need to be active allies. Support women-led events, share women artists' music, challenge sexist behaviour in club environments, and use your platform to amplify underrepresented voices. The gender imbalance in electronic music isn't women's problem to solve alone — it's a community-wide issue that requires community-wide action.