The latest gender analysis study from the group Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio, or MIW, finds “progress in key areas while leadership gaps persist.”
“For a quarter century, MIW has compiled and analyzed the number of women rising to management roles within the radio industry, providing one of the longest-running benchmarks of female leadership progress in broadcasting,” the group said. It focuses on U.S.-based commercial radio.
It tracks women holding the positions of general manager, sales manager and program director/brand manager. The study is based on raw data collected by PrecisionTrak.
It found that about 22% of U.S. radio stations had women general managers in 2025, a slight increase from the previous year. MIW said this category shows “solid growth” from 2004 when the percentage of female general managers was only about 15%.
In the Top 100 markets, about 24% were managed by women, “which is almost a 5% increase from 2024 and still continues to run higher than the national average.”
MIW says that overall, the most management opportunities for women seem to be in sales. About 35% of stations had a woman sales manager in 2025, basically flat from the year prior. In the top 100 markets, the numbers here also continue to run ahead of the national average at about 37%, though down from about 43% the year prior.
“The greatest challenge for women in radio management continues to be in the area of program directors/brand managers,” MIW stated.
Women program only about 13%, up slightly from the year prior. In the top 100 markets, the number is about 15%, up from 11% the year before.
The group does not include engineering and technology management in its study.
MIW Board President Sheila Kirby said in the announcement that the group was encouraged by movement in the GM and programming roles. At the same time, flat growth in sales leadership and the continued underrepresentation of women in programming nationally remind us that progress is not automatic.”
