The number of women listening to podcasts continues to reach new heights. Newly-released data from Edison Research’s 2022 Infinite Dial report finds more than one in three women (35%) aged 18 and older say they have listened to a podcast in the past month. That is an increase of 67% during the past five years, and the monthly female audience for podcasts now totals an estimated 47 million.
The latest figures show that over the past five years the gender gap that has skewed podcast listening toward males has begun to close. In 2017, only 44% of adult monthly podcast listeners in the U.S. were female. That’s now 48%, more closely mirroring the U.S. population.
The new Edison findings come from SXM Media, which says women monthly podcast listeners skew younger and are also more likely to be employed full-time, have higher incomes, and are better educated than podcast listeners overall. The data shows they are also a third more likely to have children under 18.
“Podcasts have shown huge momentum in general over the past few years, not exclusively among women,” says Melissa Paris, VP, Sales Research & Analytics at SXM Media. “A big part of the draw for female audiences and other growth segments has been the explosion of high-quality, diverse content over the last few years.” She points out that SXM Media, for instance, has had lot of success with its slate of female-hosted podcasts, including Crime Junkie and Office Ladies. “But as the data shows, there is certainly room for even more representation,” Paris says.
The new Edison data comes in tandem with release of a survey SXM has completed among 1,500 women to gauge how they are interacting with podcasts. It finds that 57% of multicultural women wish there were more podcasts focusing on women of color. And nearly half (47%) who are monthly listeners say they have a hard time finding podcasts focused on women of color. It could be costing the podcast industry some growth since 55% of women listeners say they would listen to more podcasts if there were more that included female stories and perspectives. And 52% say they would listen to more podcasts if there were more hosted by women.
“While the listening gap may be closing, there is definitely still room to grow when it comes to content that is centered on female voices and perspectives” Paris says, pointing out similar sentiments have been voiced in research of Black listeners. “While younger audiences have really flocked to podcasts in recent years, there is also great growth potential with older listeners in terms of audience growth and filling gaps in content,” she added.
The SXM survey shows women listen to a wide variety of content – on average, they listen to 5.7 different genres or topics. Comedy leads overall, followed by True Crime and shows that cover love and relationships, but there are variances among the different groups. For instance, moms over-index for Children’s and Sports podcasts, Black women over-index for adult fiction, and Gen Z women over-index for horror and celebrity gossip-focused podcasts.
Women Reward Advertisers That Support Them
The growing reach of podcasts among women offers new opportunities for marketers and the podcast industry overall. The SXM survey finds nearly half of women listeners (48%) would feel more favorable about a brand if they knew it advertises on female-hosted or produced podcasts. And hearing an ad from a brand in a podcast on those shows would make them more likely to consider (41%), recommend (36%), purchase (31%) and spend more (26%) on the brand compared to hearing ads on other podcasts.
“Looking forward, as podcast listening continues to rise among women, brands should be paying attention to their listening habits and interests as they look to reach a wider audience and forge authentic connections with them through the medium,” Paris says.
The research shows women are also actively engaging with podcasts beyond listening – 56% have followed a podcast on social media and 51% have followed a host in order to keep up to date with the podcast or simply to support the show. Women are also helping to spread the word as 40% have shared a podcast on social media.
“We were pleasantly surprised to see that women are such strong promoters of podcasts, with over eight in ten recommending podcasts to others,” says Paris. “But what really amazed us were how many had shared podcasts with others for deep, meaningful reasons like wanting to explain their feelings or to deepen their connection with someone.”
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