✦ Non-male Engineer + Producer Archive

With downloadable resources.

People who work in music are often one degree of separation away from a life-changing collaboration. Awareness can transform the lives of underutilized non-male engineers. I hope this resource can lift the portfolios of these engineers and producers. They’re working up against decades of homogeny, masculinity, and stubbornness.

In my 2022 essay “Where Have All The Cowgirls Gone?” I laid out some alarming statistics. Over the past decade, women only make up 12.7% of songwriters, and 2.8% of producers.¹ These statistics are moving at a snail’s pace or not moving at all.

Proportion of female producers working in the music industry from the Inclusion in the Recording Studio report

88% of young female creatives felt that they lacked a role model, while 70% had never worked with a female creative director or executive creative director.

And when it comes to audio, there are very few women in senior creative and sound engineering roles, with women accounting for less than 5% of audio engineers.²

If this is an issue you feel passionate about, here are a number of resources I’ve enjoyed digging into.

Women In Audio Series by Tape Op
Soundgirls.org
USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative/Study
Women In The Mix Study

Engineers need to see themselves as a professional and feel motivated to jump the hurdles that get them there. Mentorship and role models are crucial. I’ll leave you with this heartwarming example between two legendary engineers, Julie Last and Bella Blasko (via Tape Op).

I read that Julie Last helped you with the transition from a musician into engineering.

Julie is an amazing engineer. She was such an inspiration to me. When I first took some recording classes with her at Bennington College, I had an interest in engineering and recording, but I was more of a musician at that point. When I thought about being an engineer, I felt like I wasn’t seeing many women doing that. Having the opportunity to have this mentor who is an accomplished female engineer, it really changed the way I viewed it. I felt like here’s this example of how you can be in the studio. One thing I took from her is that she’s patient and kind. She has a comforting presence – people like being around her, and she approaches things with such care. It gave me an example of what a feminine approach to being a sound engineer could look like. I also related to her on a personal level. I recognized that she was an engineer who wasn’t feeling like, “Well, I’m going to act tough.” She is tough, but she doesn’t have to assert herself in a dominant way to be able to have a strong effect on the people around her.

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Engineer Archive

Download the full archive of engineers:

• Access as Document / https://bit.ly/NMEPA

• If you would like to be included in the archive, please fill out this form.

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Please continue to send more engineers and producers my way, I can update these documents in real time and intend to build upon this archive. I hope you can find your next collaborator, role model, or any inspiration at all. If you are listed here and have a correction to your listing, let me know and I’m happy to amend.

I’d also like to recognize that there’s not really an ideal collective term for everyone’s identities here and much of the dated research comes from a binary place. I chose “non-men” because of its use in the studies, and the relational language concisely explains the need for diversity in a “male”-dominated industry without potentially misidentifying anyone I’ve included in the archive.

Lastly, please consider sharing this list with the artists and industry-workers you know.

1. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/31/1089901763/women-music-industry

2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/international-womens-day-2023-women-audio-part-one-forever-audio/