Women in country music face a constant and trying uphill battle.

Speaking with Evan Paul on Taste of Country Nights, singer-songwriter Annie Bosko got to talking about the harsh realities for women in country music—and let’s just say it ain’t pretty.

“As a female, this is not a ‘woe is me.’ It’s a stat. Your odds are stacked against you. You make up 8 percent of radio airplay in America on country radio,” Bosko shares.

Let’s dive into that percentage. According to Dr. Jada Watson at Song Data, female artists indeed represented just over 8 percent of the songs programmed at country radio in 2024.

Truthfully, as a girl-dad, this scares me because it doesn’t seem to be getting any better as the years go on.

However, Bosko says artists such as Jelly Roll are helping pave the way for female country artists by trying to break down these walls.

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She says Jelly Roll takes the time to highlight women on his tour and bring them out to sing with him, extending his platform so they can expand theirs.

“There are some artists that I open for that don’t know I’m the opener and they don’t know who I am. Jelly makes a point to know who you are. He’ll bring you out on stage to sing with him, he’s giving you that platform,” she shares.

“Jelly told me, ‘I have a daughter. In the event that she wants to pursue music someday, I hope that someone does that for her,'” Bosko adds.

If you needed another reason to love Jelly Roll, there you go.

Bosko also notes that as a woman in country music, she makes up “not even a quarter of festival lineups,” saying, “It’s just crazy what we are up against.”

So sure, while you may technically see women on the lineups of country festivals and hear their songs on country radio, you’re still hearing a whopping 92 percent of male songs and seeing 75 percent of men on stage at festivals across the U.S., and that’s just not fair.

Who Was the First Woman Played on Country Radio?

Kitty Wells was the first woman to achieve major success on country radio. Her 1952 hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” became the first No. 1 country song by a female solo artist in the genre.