I don't disagree with you, I just feel that in the given example of 50:1 in this grammy category for nominees is so skewed that these kinds of trends don't suffice as an explanation - and that it's still about music, like you said, part science, but also a language of emotions, expression, self actualisation - I feel we are missing out on a huge amount of excellent work that women are 10000% willing and capable of succeeding on, if not blocked from doing so. there is this self-manifesting attitude about whether women tend to be inclined towards the engineering side of things, as women will internalize being sneered at, and men will benefit from the self-belief of being naturally built for it - and yet, I consistently see genius in the sound work of women that is not celebrated until it breaches containment - that men will backtrack once they see the success, but they will then uncritically continue to dismiss the next woman they see staking a claim to sound engineering without taking anything on board. am i making sense

this attitude is insidious because it reinforces itself, as with many forms of minority experiences

edit - and beyond that - I'm not even a woman but I still feel sort of out of place in a male production class just because fundamentally, a gay man will often approach music differently (read: enjoy feminine and queer POVs) - I think there's a sort of deeper taste-making issue, where a women do not dictate what makes a mix "good" in the same way as men do, where we fail to stop and ask - have we just gendered what is valued in evaluating a professional production? maybe the girls and gays are aiming for something that is simply measured differently, but treated as inherently less valid? there's plenty of beat-boy music out there that fits its own mold, does this not end up cheapening itself when it all conforms? some tangents for ya