Welcome to Metal Women. This project wasn’t born from a guess; it was born from data, and from direct, long-term experience.
As the founders of the metal publication Media Junkbox, we’ve spent years in the photo pits and press tents of the UK and European metal scenes. We’ve been privileged to cover some of the biggest shows and festivals in the world, interviewing bands, but from that position, we saw a pattern that became impossible to ignore:
Year after year, we watched as massive festival lineups were announced with a shockingly low share of acts featuring women. This isn’t just a feeling; it’s a fact. A recent UK study of major festivals, for instance, found that for every one female act booked, three male acts were (A2D2, 2024). In the metal scene specifically, this is even more pronounced.
This isn’t a pipeline problem; it’s a visibility problem. The talent is out there.
This disparity becomes a crisis when you look behind the stage. The women who make this industry run, the managers, publicists, photographers, sound engineers, and roadies, are even less visible.
Consider this: across the entire music industry, women make up just 5% of all music tech professionals. The ratio of male-to-female producers is a staggering 37-to-1.
The gap between the reality of this talent and its visibility is the entire reason “Metal Women” exists.
Our mission is to create a single, global resource to help fix this. We are building a comprehensive guide for great bands, artists, and professionals featuring women from around the world. We are here to promote, celebrate, and amplify their work to help their visibility grow even further.
Think of this site as a hybrid:
- It’s a Wiki/Guide: A living database where you can discover talent.
- It’s an Editorial Hub: A place for interviews, features, and stories that go deeper.
So, who is “Metal Women” for? It’s for everyone who loves metal.
If you’re a fan, this is your new tool to discover your next favorite band. If you’re a musician, this is a place to find collaborators and new band members. If you’re a promoter, label, or publication, this is your database. The next time you need to hire a publicist, book a tour photographer, or find a sound engineer, we want this to be the first place you look.
We are creating a tool for connection and discovery. It’s our goal to help build a more equitable, diverse, and representative metal scene. And to be clear, our mission to promote all women is explicitly inclusive and supportive of non-binary individuals in our community—who, according to industry reports, are 200% more likely to be told their gender is “not a good fit” for a job.
We’re here to prove they are a perfect fit.
This is a community project, welcome to Metal Women.
If you are, or know, a band, artist, or professional who should be in our guide, we want to hear from you. Help us build this resource by submitting a profile today.