A champion for change... Dunboyne music industry icon celebrated for advancing gender equality

Last night in London, Irish gender equality campaigner and music industry strategist Linda Coogan Byrne was honoured with the Outstanding Contributor Award in Gender Equality at the United Nations UK “London Women UN Awards.”

Linda grew up in Dunboyne where her mother's family is from and later lived in Skyrne for three and a half years where she took time to unwind from the busy city life of London.

The award recognises Linda’s pioneering work in shifting the UK music industry toward gender balance on radio playlists, culminating in the landmark 2024 report that revealed, for the first time in history, female artists overtook male artists on UK radio.

Linda’s data-led activism through her Why Not Her? campaign has fundamentally reshaped the conversation around representation in the music industry.

Her team’s June 2024 report, “Celebrating a Historic Year for Women in UK Radio”, confirmed a seismic shift:

Women now represent 41 per cent of the Top 100 songs on UK radio, compared to 39 per cent for male artists and 20 per cent for collaborations.

This victory came after years of data transparency, lobbying, and advocacy led by Linda, who challenged broadcasters and regulators to confront their own systemic bias.

Linda said: “to receive this recognition from UN Women UK is deeply humbling. We asked the question — Why not her? — and the UK music industry answered with action.

For the first time in our modern comparative reports, women artists are being heard on their own terms, at scale, across national radio. This is what systemic change looks like.

Yet, while we celebrate this progress in the UK, we must also confront the silence in Ireland. Despite years of engagement with broadcasters and the new Coimisiún na Meán, we’ve seen little real progress toward gender parity on Irish radio, and zero accountability.

The UK proved it’s possible. It’s time Ireland followed suit and for those with the power to actually do something instead of ignoring the stats and gaslighting our work. Real change happens when we call out our biases and pledge to do better. Irish women in music deserve to be heard, just as much as their male counterparts. And diverse artists matter as much as any other.”