Last year, a BBC study of 14 major UK festivals for the last decade found out that of the 660 headline appearances, only 37 were all-female acts. This year’s Wireless festival was criticised by stars such as Lily Allen for only including three female artists across three days of music, while this year’s Green Man’s line-up features no women in its top 14 headline acts.

To curb this problem 45 music festivals around the world have pledged to implement a 50/50 gender balance in their line-ups by 2022, Pitchfork reports. The pledge comes from a new initiative from the U.K.'s PRS Foundation called Keychange, which was founded to fight gender disparity in the music industry, and includes live line-ups, conferences, and commissions in its ratio.

“Our focus on gender equality in 2018 aligns with the centenary for some women being given the vote in the U.K.," said Vanessa Reed, CEO of PRS Foundation, in a press release. "100 years on, the push for gender parity across society continues and with increased public awareness of inequalities across the creative industries, we have an opportunity to respond and commit to tangible change in music. The Keychange network of female artists and industry professionals and the festival partners’ idea of establishing a collective pledge will significantly accelerate change. I hope that this will be the start of a more balanced industry which will result in benefits for everyone.”

Another wide-ranging report finds that, of the many areas men outnumber women in popular music, the recording studio is the worst. The PRS Foundation's Keychange has recruited festivals like Liverpool Sound City, NYC Winter Jazzfest, Norway's Borealis, Canada's North by North East, U.K.'s BBC Proms and dozens more to take part in the initiative.

Additionally, Garbage's Shirley Manson, David Bowie producer Tony Visconti, Imogen Heap and Glastonbury organizer Emily Eaves are among the ambassadors who will help further Keychange's gender balance goals.

"I remain utterly outraged by the depressing statistics surrounding female representation in every aspect of the global music business," Manson said in a statement. "We are doing a great disservice, not only to women of all races and socio-economic backgrounds but to all genders, culture, and society in general by allowing the status quo to continue. I am proud to support Keychange and everything it is trying to do."

Visconti added, "I thoroughly support Keychange and its aims to empower women in the music industry. I've enjoyed working with lots of talented female artists so I'd love to see more young women being encouraged to make music their career. I also like the fact that the festivals are setting themselves a 5-year goal through Keychange – wouldn't it be great for us all to see an equal number of men and women on stages and on panels in the near future?"

According to the PRS Foundation, Keychange is "a pioneering international initiative supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union which is empowering women to transform the future of the music industry and encouraging industry conferences and festivals to achieve or maintain a 50:50 balance by 2022. By bringing together like-minded festivals and conference programmers committed to positive action, Keychange aims to create much needed long-term change in live music and beyond."

Prominent music fests like Iceland's Airwaves, Sweden's Way Out West and the U.K.'s The Great Escape have previously also aligned with Keychange.

With 45 festivals signing up for this, we hope to see the change very soon.