Sunday’s Grammy Awards talked a good game about gender equality: Janelle Monae brought down the house with a passionate speech calling for “safe work environments, equal pay and access for all women,” then introduced Kesha, singing a song that felt like an anthem for the #TimesUp movement. Lady Gaga shouted out #TimesUp in her early performance, and countless attendees wore white roses to show their support.
But when it came to awards, only one woman was seen accepting a solo award during Sunday’s broadcast: Alessia Cara, who was named Best New Artist. Rihanna, meanwhile, shared the award for Best Rap/Sung Performance, and accepted with Kendrick Lamar for “Loyalty.” She was featured on the song.
Part of the reason for the gender imbalance among the winners was the gender imbalance among the nominees: The only female nominee in the Album of the Year category was Lorde. No woman was nominated for Record of the Year. Bruno Mars dominated in the major categories.
The situation isn’t an anomaly. A University of Southern California study released Friday — just in time for the awards — found that more than 90 percent of Grammy nominees from 2013-18 were male.
Here’s a page from that study:
Several people on social media were particularly frustrated Sunday by the Best Pop Solo Performance category, in which Ed Sheeran beat four female artists — Kelly Clarkson, Kesha, Lady Gaga and Pink — then didn’t show up to accept his award.
Once again, #EdSheeran wins over much stronger female contenders, so instead of #kesha's song about overcoming sexual abuse, we reward another song by a man about a woman's body. #GRAMMYs #metoo #timesup #grammyssomale
— Anya Silver (@AnyaSilverPoet) January 29, 2018
Of course, the Grammys only show the major categories on TV, to keep a long ceremony from going even longer. But men also dominated overall. Here’s the complete list of winners.