“Even when I was growing up I wished there were more women on the radio, and I had a lot more than there are today,” Carrie Underwood said, while appearing as a guest on the podcast “Women Want to Hear Women.”

Women hoping to make it in country music are not only faced with the the difficulty of getting signed and the uncertainty of trying to make it in the industry, but they are dealt a second and more targeted blow: The number of women getting airtime on country radio stations is significantly decreasing.

The percentage of country songs sung by women, excluding duets* with men, has decreased from an already low 13 percent to 10.4 percent in the last year, according to the Tennessean. The problem is not a shortage of women pursuing careers in country music, but the attitudes of industry gatekeepers.

As 2015’s “tomato-gate” saga showed, women in country are treated like an unwelcome inclusion by industry professionals who have decided the music people actually want to hear is by men. That sexist opinion sparked outrage within the music industry, but airplay for women on country radio has continued to decrease.

“How do we change it?” Underwood asked, her exasperation* barely hidden. “I don’t know. How do we change it?” Until the people who choose who gets through the gate see women as more than duet partners and believe their music is more than something to sprinkle in among the music people “actually want to listen to,” women will continue to fight for a place.

(SD-Agencies)