In an industry often defined by gatekeepers, algorithms, and shifting trends, one truth remains constant: access changes everything. For the next generation of women entering music, success is increasingly shaped not only by talent, but by community, mentorship, and the people willing to open doors—an ethos reflected in organizations like Girls Who Listen.
That belief is at the center of the music industry organization founded by Kadijat Salawudeen, a 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. What began as a graduate school panel discussion has grown into a broader ecosystem supporting women as they build and sustain careers in music. Through mentorship, education, networking, and international outreach, the organization seeks to expand access and opportunity in a field where women—particularly women of color—have long had to navigate without institutional support.
Women Shape Music, But Power Still Lags Behind, Says Girls Who Listen
For Salawudeen, the mission was never simply entrepreneurial. In many ways, she says, the organization found her. What started as an effort to create space for women in media has grown into a broader movement rooted in access, community, and career development—arriving at a moment when the industry’s equity gaps are increasingly difficult to ignore.
The urgency is reflected in the numbers. According to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, women represented just 37.7% of artists on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 chart in 2024. Behind the scenes, the imbalance is more pronounced: women accounted for only 18.9% of songwriters and just 5.9% of producers across popular music. In practical terms, this means that while women are shaping what audiences hear, they remain underrepresented in the rooms where those sounds are built, refined, and greenlit.
The result is a system where visibility has outpaced access. A young woman may see more female artists at the forefront of culture than ever before, yet still encounter limited pathways into production studios, executive teams, or decision-making roles that shape long-term careers.
Powerful women across the music industry gather around a table for a discussion on leadership, mentorship, and expanding opportunities for the next generation of professionals.
(Photo Courtesy of Kadijat Salawudeen)
Girls Who Listen: Beyond Representation, Toward Infrastructure
For decades, conversations about women in music have centered on representation. But representation alone does not resolve structural imbalance. The next chapter is about infrastructure: the systems that determine who gets in, who gets mentored, and who gets sustained.
Salawudeen’s own path reflects that tension. Armed with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. John’s University, she balanced academics with internships, networking, and industry work long before she fully understood how those experiences would compound. Looking back, she describes education less as a roadmap and more as training in how to build structure inside uncertainty.
That kind of balancing act is familiar to many young women entering music today. Careers are often built across multiple roles at once—student, creative, intern, strategist, entrepreneur—before any single title stabilizes. Yet even as the pipeline of aspiring women in music grows, entry points remain uneven, particularly in technical and executive spaces.
The data underscores this gap. Women still occupy fewer than one-fifth of songwriting credits on major charting songs, and production roles remain overwhelmingly male-dominated. The challenge is no longer talent or ambition; it is sustained access to the rooms where creative and commercial decisions are made.
From Competition To Collective Advancement With Girls Who Listen
One of the most defining aspects of Girls Who Listen is its challenge to a long-standing industry dynamic: the framing of women—especially Black women—as competitors rather than collaborators. In an industry shaped by scarcity logic, mentorship has often been inconsistent, informal, or entirely absent.
Salawudeen speaks openly about entering spaces where guidance was often replaced by gatekeeping, and where proving oneself was treated as a prerequisite for receiving support. Rather than replicate that model, she built Girls Who Listen around a different premise: knowledge should circulate, not concentrate.
That philosophy is not theoretical—it shapes the organization’s programming. Mentorship cohorts pair emerging professionals with industry mentors. Executive coffee chats create low-barrier access to decision-makers. Resource libraries and networking events are designed less as introductions and more as sustained relationship-building spaces. The goal is not only to connect women to executives, but to connect them to each other.
Women music industry professionals connect and exchange ideas during a conversation in an office setting, highlighting the importance of collaboration, mentorship, and leadership in the industry.
(Photo Courtesy of Kadijat Salawudeen)
That approach aligns with growing research showing that professional networks remain one of the strongest predictors of career mobility, particularly in creative industries where opportunities are often shared through informal relationships rather than traditional hiring pipelines.
This reflects a broader generational shift. Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that learning opportunities, mentorship, and meaningful workplace relationships rank among the most important factors influencing career decisions for younger professionals. In music, where geography still matters—centers like New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville continue to dominate—digital and hybrid communities are becoming essential for those building careers from outside traditional hubs.
Participants such as Jasmin Benward have also engaged with Girls Who Listen programming, reflecting the organization’s broader ecosystem of mentorship and creative support. “What has given me undeniable insight, access, and community are the relationships I’ve built and continue to foster with incredible women and gender-expansive folks in the business,” Benward claimed. “I am a byproduct of folks who have offered chance, education, and creative collaboration that helps me thrive as I navigate a new industry later in life.”
Girls Who Listen Is Building Spaces Where Opportunity Can Accumulate
Girls Who Listen’s reach now extends beyond the United States. Born in Nigeria and raised in the U.S., Salawudeen has long envisioned a global model of access. That vision recently materialized through initiatives supporting young women in Nigeria with educational resources, scholarships, and mentorship programming.
The effort reflects a broader opportunity across African creative industries, where women remain underrepresented in technical and executive music roles despite growing visibility among artists and performers.
That philosophy also informed the launch of Girls Who Listen Café in Nigeria, a hybrid space designed to function as a coworking hub during the day and a community gathering space at night. While unconventional for a music-focused organization, the concept reflects a broader belief: opportunity is often built in informal environments—places where conversations happen easily, collaborations form organically, and access feels less conditional.
In that sense, the café is not an extension of the mission; it is the mission made physical.
Looking ahead, Salawudeen envisions Girls Who Listen evolving from a largely volunteer-driven initiative into a fully funded institution with dedicated staff, expanded global programming, and a formal role as a talent pipeline for the music industry.
Kadijat Salawudeen distributes essential supplies to young women in Nigeria, supporting community welfare and empowerment initiatives.
(Photo Courtesy of Kadijat Salawudeen)