The Five Percent

Helen Oakley Dance (born Helen Oakley) was the earliest female jazz record producer (and perhaps the earliest known female record producer of any genre). She was instrumental in the early days of jazz in America - writing about it, producing it (including many recordings with Duke Ellington), promoting it, and connecting artists with each other.

Mary Shipman Howard was one of the earliest known female recording engineers and one of the earliest women studio owners (in the 1940s). Mary worked with great musicians and composers of the era such as Glenn Miller, Arturo Toscanini, Charles Ives, and Samuel Barber.

Lillian Shedd McMurry was one of the earliest woman record producers and owner of Trumpet Records. She was influential in the development of blues music particularly through her recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson II and the discovery of guitarist Elmore James. Lillian was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998.

Berenice Hardiman is a veteran of the industry having first been inspired after seeing Pink Floyd at the Liverpool Empire, which was her very first concert.  “I immediately knew that I wanted to be part of whatever that “thing” was that I had just witnessed. Now Bernice is FOH Engineer and Tour Manager for Midge...

“I think that if women stand behind women – both women as audience, women as listeners and viewers and women as co-workers within the broadcast field – we’d just be supportive and give each other a little encouragement, it would make all the difference.” Marion Keisker MacInnes

Producer/engineer LENISE BENT is one of the first women recording engineers and has worked on many iconic records including “Aja” by Steely Dan, “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp and “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac. She was also the first woman to receive a platinum album for engineering on Blondie’s AutoAmerican.

Darcy Proper became the first woman engineer to win the GRAMMY for the Best Surround Sound Album category in 2008 for Donald Fagen’s “Morph the Cat” album. Darcy not only achieved these despite being a minority in her field, but she also accomplished these while she lived thousands of miles away from the center of...

Deb Adair is a freelance re-recording mixer. Deb has been nominated for an Oscar (for the film Moneyball), has won three Emmys and nominated for an additional five, and has won two Golden Reel awards as Sound Supervisor. In the past couple of years her film credits include Entourage, Pele, and Keanu

Sherry Klein is an Emmy-nominated re-recording mixer and a pioneer of women in audio in both music and television. Sherry became a recording engineer at Larrabee Studios in the late 1970s – one of a handful of women engineers in Los Angeles at the time and possibly one of the only women re-recording mixers in...