"The Grammys are just symptomatic of a large representational roadblock facing women in the music business," says Dr. Stacy Smith, coauthor of a groundbreaking study on gender and ethnicity in the music business for the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. "The broader problem really lies in an ecosystem of artists and their ability to have access to opportunity."

She said she hoped the time would soon come when being “the first woman” would no longer be news. "I’m very honoured to be the first,” she admitted, “but I’m also rather shocked that we can be in this year, in this century, and there can still be ‘firsts’ for women.”

The music industry, with the notable exception of Russell Simmons, has been largely spared the torrent of sexual harassment accusations levelled at film business performers and executives, yet it is not without enduring biases, says cultural critic and former music industry executive Carol Cooper. “The Grammys have gone back and forth on both the race and gender issue for many years. It was slow to validate rap and hip-hop, and you can’t just relegate young female rap or hip-hop artists to one category of best new artist.”

Alan Davey, controller of BBC Radio 3 and classical music, said it was “incredibly exciting” to “shine a light” on the composers, explaining: “It means that we are not only expanding the canon of classical music, but also actually helping to redress its historic imbalance when it comes to gender and diversity.” The five women, who include a Viennese prodigy, the first woman to have an opera premiered in Paris, and an African-american composer who played with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1930s, were identified as part of a project to seek out previously lost, forgotten or little known female composers, and make their work available to perform.

These four women are making powerful strides as leaders in a male-dominated industry—even the majority of artists represented under the Dirtybird label are men. Abi Getto is the day-to-day manager for Claude VonStroke and his Barclay Crenshaw alias. Courtesy of Juliana Bernstein. “I think shining the light on successful women both at the top and in the mid-level of their career can inspire younger women to see themselves in the role,” Getto says. “If you see a high-powered role in the music industry as some unattainable thing because there’s no one who looks like you or fits your profile in that role, you’re not as likely to try. That’s why visibility is so important to growing the intersectionality within any industry.”

While many male and female executives have been supportive, several female producers expressed dismay that more female artists don't seek out female producers. "It's ­interesting that a lot of female artists have this feminist message and they'll make their record with all men. It seems kind of ­hypocritical," says Hope. "This [woman] will get up to accept an award and be surrounded by straight, white, middle-aged men."

“I do not want my gender, my femininity, to become a crutch … I am proud of being a woman conductor, but I want to take the next step and go beyond any tags and be seen and valued as the same as my male colleagues.”

A lineup without women headliners is not surprising considering the festival has only featured one over its 16-year stint: Bjork in 2013. 0:00 / 0:04 Bonnaroo isn't the only festival to receive criticism for its male-dominated lineups: almost all major music festivals have had the same problem including Coachella, Glastonbury, Outside Lands, Lollapalooza and and more.

When you break these numbers down according to the gender of the singer, it turns out that the decline in overall crossover songs is entirely driven by a plunge in the number of female artists crossing over. In fact, the number of male crossover songs has stayed almost constant: The trend line has a negative slope that's barely different from zero, although it is statistically significant.

"It's not about genders anymore, it's about delivery," she says, adding that while some view her as a trailblazer or simply a percussionist, others still don't know what to make of her. "So it's pretty mixed up, but I could say it's more comfortable now because I feel like once you've proved to the world that you are just a human being doing an amazing job, people tend to accept you better."

An important thing to note about 2018's lineup: the women billed to perform this year at Coachella, while still far fewer than men, represent diversity and inclusion in more ways than just genre. It is imperative that more women are included in festival lineups, and it is just as momentous that there is equal representation for a diverse group of artists. Beyoncé is the first woman of color to headline Coachella. That it took the festival this long to meet that milestone is stupefying.