Gender bias across the music industries remains deep‑rooted and systemic. Women continue to face pervasive misogyny, discrimination, unequal pay, ageism and widespread harassment. Our ‘Sound of the Next Generation’ (SONG) report (2024) discovered a worrying trend: girls are feeling increasingly less musical, highlighting how these inequalities begin early and compound over time.

This Women's History Month 2026, we’re shining a spotlight on some of the projects we fund that are actively challenging these barriers and creating spaces where women and girls can explore music confidently, gain skills, and shape their futures. 

Cobalt Studios: Levelling Up The Decks

Based in Newcastle and founded in 2018, Cobalt Studios are a grassroots music project experienced in offering activities to showcase culture in all its diversity, support creative production of all kinds and empower individuals to be creative and expressive. 

Building on the success off their LADS (Ladies Open Decks and Social), Cobalt’s 'Levelling Up The Decks' aims to take this to the next level by empowering marginalised 18-25 year old women and providing opportunities to DJ and produce electronic music. Their Youth Music Trailblazer Fund project creates a dedicated open access space for peer learning, regular taught sessions, free access to mentoring, and the opportunity to take part in masterclasses and performing at live events. As well as paying for taught sessions and masterclasses, the grant will enable Cobalt to buy and set up a studio space dedicated to young women.

GIRL GRIND UK: Backstage Baddies

GIRL GRIND UK was founded to systematically empower and support Global Majority Women, Girls, and Non-Binary individuals at crucial stages in their personal and professional development. In partnership with Pirates.com via the Youth Music Industry Connect Fund, GGUK will deliver their project, Backstage Baddies, over nine months in Birmingham’s Digbeth area. The program includes three sets of three-day bootcamps and 50 hours of mentorship/ booster sessions, empowering 63 diverse women and non-binary individuals with skills in traditionally male dominated offstage music roles addressing underrepresentation.

One World Orchestra: Developing the New Sounds of Crawley

One World Orchestra was established in early 2024, building on previous work with asylum seekers and musicians connected to Musicians Without Borders. Their work centres on supporting asylum seekers and refugees living in hotels in Crawley, using music and community-based activities to connect people from different backgrounds and with varied experiences of trauma. Through support from the Youth Music Catalyser Fund, this new project expands group music‑making for displaced young people living in emergency accommodation, trafficked women and their children, and school pupils in areas of high deprivation. The project aims to nurture wellbeing, strengthen belonging, and create safe creative pathways for young people. The programme will work with children and young people aged 0–25, while also developing the skills of the workforce around them.

Saffron Records: Routes

​​​​​​Founded 2015, Saffron is a grassroots non-profit which specialises in promoting women, trans, and non-binary people's participation in digital music and music technology. They deliver adult workshops across the UK, covering topics such as Ableton, sound engineering, DJing, radio broadcasting, and creative activism. Saffron promotes artists via their record label and regular events, while also offering bespoke mentoring and a community tech library. They boast a global community of 400+ members who attend online sessions. Through support from the Youth Music Catalyser Fund, Saffron Routes is a project that addresses gender inequality in music tech by educating girls and gender minorities in the South West aged 12–16. Through school outreach, youth club sessions and workforce training, it builds inclusive pathways into music tech. The project fosters long-term engagement and equips youth organisations to create lasting, inclusive change across the industry.

Second Wave Centre for Youth Arts: Fearless Voices

Second Wave Centre for Youth Arts is a charity based in South London with a 40‑year history of supporting young people in urban communities. Their community programme helps young people grow their creative skills and confidence, empowering the next generation of artists, community leaders and social justice advocates. Fearless Voices is a two‑year Youth Music Trailblazer Fund project for young women aged 13–25 living in Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark. Co‑designed and delivered by young women, the project will prioritise participation from underrepresented groups, including young people from Black British, African and Caribbean communities, refugees and asylum seekers, young carers, and those who are not in education, employment or training, or from low‑income backgrounds. Fearless Voices will create space for young women to learn, collaborate and express their own narratives. Through singing, songwriting, rap, lyric writing, live performance, production and media, participants will be supported to develop their creativity, explore new skills and share their stories with confidence.

Spark the Noise

Spark the Noise is on a mission is to amplify the voices of girls, women, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, through music-making and community-building. They have just announced their first music production programme for girls, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming young people aged 13–17, running weekly after‑school sessions from March to May 2026 in Hackney. Led by experienced producer and engineer Ary Maudit and supported by a diverse volunteer team, participants will learn the basics of Ableton Live - covering songwriting, MIDI programming, FX and sound processing, arrangement, and vocal recording - while creating and producing their own track from scratch. The Youth Music Trailblazer Fund programme is fully beginner‑friendly, offers a high level of tailored support with a 1:3 adult-to-young person ratio, and welcomes applicants from any location (though sessions are in-person). Participants will finish with their own completed song and the skills to continue producing independently.

Young Women's Music Project: Taking Up Space

‘Taking Up Space’ is a project by the Young Women’s Music Project, an organisation primarily based in Oxford which provides an inclusive and supportive space for marginalised young women, trans and non-binary young people aged 14-25 to make music. Many of the targeted participants are from economically deprived backgrounds (including over 30% of participants being not in education, employment or training) and are vastly underrepresented in the music industry (with 60% identifying as LGBTQ+ or questioning sexuality, over 50% identify as BAME and 16% identifying as Disabled. The Catalyser Fund support centres around opening and refitting a new public-facing space in the city, exclusive to the organisation, for them to continue and expand their youth work, and make it more effective. This will include running their regular activities and developing the new space to best create a safer space for young people to engage with music.