06.03.2025: To mark International Women’s Day this March 8, UK Music takes a moment to celebrate the progress the industry has made in making our sector a more inclusive space, while highlighting the need to not only continue but accelerate the drive for gender equality and bring about meaningful, lasting change. 

For International Women’s Day 2025, we wanted to explore this year’s theme of ‘Accelerate Action’ and how it can be applied to the music industry ecosystem. In recent years, after what had felt like protracted periods of discussion around the subject, it seems that tangible changes across the industry are beginning to bring about significant progress in workplace gender equality.  

On the surface things certainly look encouraging, with figures since the turn of the decade heading consistently in the right direction. Last year’s UK Music Workforce Diversity Survey found that representation of women in senior positions in the sector had grown steadily from 40.4% in 2020 to 45.1% in 2022, and to 48.3% in 2024.  

However, representation of women at mid-level positions – as of 2024 – was at 52.4% and 61.5% at entry-level. So, while it is important that we recognize the positive progress being made across the board, it is essential that the increase seen in executive level representation is not merely continued but accelerated.  

According to the World Economic Forum, it will currently take until 2158 (approximately five generations) for the world to reach full gender parity. This feels like a hell of a long wait for something we should be experiencing today and exemplifies why this year’s International Women’s Day theme is such a pertinent one.  

It has been proven time and time again in businesses from across all sectors – not just the music industry – that greater diversity in all its forms at boardroom and leadership level fosters innovation and drives success. Indeed, the Government has highlighted gender equality as a crucial component of its plans for growth mission in 2025. 

A recent press release from Parliament drew attention to the fact that top British companies are continuing to lead the way for gender equality in boardrooms, with women occupying over 43% of roles on company boards. Furthermore, the FTSE Women Leaders Review report for 2025, which is backed by the Government and sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group and KPMG LLP, shows that women now occupy 1,275 or 43% of roles on company boards and 6,743 (35%) of leadership roles at the 350 FTSE companies.  

The fact that so many leading UK businesses are ramping up their efforts on this front reflects the enormous cultural and business benefits such measures will bring.  

Of course, there are things we can all do to accelerate action in this regard. Whether it’s recruiting and training more diverse talent within your organisation or challenging stereotypes and discrimination wherever you see it, these actions need to extend beyond International Women’s Day initiatives and become standard industry practice. 

For more information on what you can do to Accelerate Action, the official International Women’s Day website has produced a list of steps we can all take to positively impact the advancement of women, as well as a list of further reading on the subject, all of which you can find here.