My life has always been female-centric: from attending an all-girls secondary school, to doing a degree with a 63% female student body, to now working in the women’s magazine industry. Perhaps because of that, I look for female-curated and created content, including books, radio and TV. I actively search for female voices and ideas.

But that means I live in an echo chamber, so I forget that media is generally dominated by men: two-thirds of bylines in reporting belong to them, they make up eight out of 10 music festival headliners, and women are the focus of only 10% of news stories, comprise just 20% of experts or spokespeople interviewed, and a mere 4% of news stories are deemed to challenge gender stereotypes.

I’m hopeful that’s changing. The BBC pay discrimination court case is just one example of equality coming into the limelight, but the the rise of new media platforms is really helping to put women in control. In fact, 85% of influencers are women, and, according to a study, earn more than 35% more per post than their male equivalents. But, let’s be honest: Instagram success is often still based on women commodifying their bodies. The platform that I think has the ability to give power to women’s voices? Podcasts (literally).

I credit podcasts with educating me about the things I now hold as essential life lessons. And they’re big game: 7.1 million people in the UK listen to podcasts, with that number growing among the young generation. They are a place where Deborah Frances-White can talk about refugees, feminism and privilege (on the latest episode of The Guilty Feminist she even said: “A podcast is a radio show that nobody can stop you making.”). Where Laura Thomas can call out diet culture. Where Otegha Uwagba can talk about racism and sexism in business.

What makes them so important is that they’re limitless – it’s not a one hour segment in a whole day of programming, but every day new podcasts discussing the issues that we care about are launched. They’ve been so influential to me that I started my own. The Girlfriends podcast challenges how we view female friendships through the eyes of young best friends.

Why female voices in podcasting are so important