Australian duo Nervo making some music. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia. 

There’s a distinct formula to have a song achieve significant radio play and earn a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list. For starters, you need, as the kids call it these days, a “sick beat.” After that, you need to create an earworm of a chorus so addicting that people will incessantly hum it all day. Then, add in a pinch of stellar vocals and airtight lyricism, and you’re good to go — well, almost.

For the final step, you have to uphold the vast gender disparity in the commercial music scene, with a sizable majority of male performers and writers and only a handful of female producers. It sounds crazy, but as revealed in a recent piece from Fusion, it’s closer to reality than most of us would like to admit.

In the article, the staggering truth of the unequal number of women who impact the music we listen to on a daily basis becomes irrevocably unsettling.

For example, according to the article, only 22.5 percent of the top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list for the week of Sept. 26 had at least one female performer and only 15 percent were performed solely by women.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Take it one step further and look at the 165 writers for the top 40 songs of the week, and you’ll find that less than 11 percent (17) of them were females.

Yet, even that isn’t the most disparaging indictment of the sad affairs of gender representation in the music scene today. Of the 83 production credits for the top 40 this week, zero (seriously, zero!) are women.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t brilliantly talented, ruthlessly dedicated and endlessly creative women who succeed in producing superb tunes, including a few songs that might already be your favorites.

To help spread awareness of some of those unsung heroines, here’s a list of five female producers already making waves in their industry:

1) WondaGurl

It’s always bittersweet when someone younger than you attains a level of success you’re unlikely to ever replicate. On one hand, it’s amazing to see someone with so little experience gain so much, and on the other hand, it’s just a reminder of the countless hours you wasted on Netflix.

WondaGurl — known for her bass-heavy musical style and impeccable choice of snapbacks — is one of those pesky overachievers. At age 16, while most of us were struggling to find homecoming dates and pass our drivers license tests, WondaGurl created the instrumental for Jay-Z’s song “Crown.”

This year, barely a legal adult at 18, she contributed a pair of infectious beats to Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late album, including the throbbing bass of “Company,” featuring Travi$ Scott, and the club-ready bass and synth licks of “Used To,” featuring Lil Wayne. She’s extremely skilled at creating so-called “bro rap,” and, now with her name out there, seems poised to expand her influence among some of rap’s most recognizable figures.

2) TOKiMONSTA

Ever since starting to seriously create music in 2008, Jennifer Lee, better known as TOKiMONSTA, has crafted three full-length studio albums, five EPs and countless collaborations, singles and remixes with various artists from indietronica singer-songwriter MNDR to the multi-talented Justin Timberlake.

Lee, who launched her own music label “Young Art” in 2014, can make spacey, downtempo grooves — “Darkest (Dim),” featuring Gavin Turek, for example — just as well as thick, throbbing EDM tunes meant for grinding at late-night dance clubs like “Steal My Attention.”

With the release of her latest album You’re Invited, which finds TOKiMONSTA delving into a more R&B style with the aid of vocalist Turek’s smooth voice, the experienced producer will undoubtedly create inventive music as her career progresses.

3) Missy Elliott

While few people have forgotten about one of rap’s biggest female icons pre-Nicki Minaj — just take a look at the frantic Twitter reactions to Elliott’s surprise performance at last year’s Super Bowl — not many know that the “Get Ur Freak On” rapper is equally as skilled in songwriting and production.

She’s worked with some of the most iconic performers, including Mariah Carey for “Babydoll” in 1997 and Beyonce’s “Signs” in 2003. She’s also scored multiple No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs as a producer, including Keyshia Cole’s “Let It Go” in 2007 and Jazmine Sullivan’s “Need U Bad” in 2008.

Elliott, who co-writes and produces a majority of her own work as well, recently announced that she is working on her seventh studio album with help from the likes of Timbaland and Pharrell Williams. It’ll be an interesting comeback for the 44-year-old rapper, who hasn’t released an album since The Cookbook in 2005, and it will be even more intriguing to see if Elliott works with any other female producers or songwriters on her next record.

4) Syd tha Kyd

They say behind every great man there is a great woman, and that phrase is incredibly true for the outlandish hip-hop collective Odd Future. Known by the name Syd tha Kyd, Sydney Bennett was one of the main producers of the quirky music group that included high-profile names like Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator.

An individual highly devoted to her music, Bennett built a small music studio in her home to work on sound engineering and music production at the wee age of 14. The majority of Odd Future’s original songs, as the group revealed, were also recorded in Bennett’s house. In 2011, she went on to be the singer and producer for the neo-soul band The Internet with former Odd Future member Matt Martians.

Currently, she continues working with The Internet, contributing to their third studio album Ego Death released in June with her effortlessly polished vocals and well-layered electronic beats.

5) Nervo

An Australian music duo comprised of sisters Miriam and Olivia Nervo, Nervo have made synth-heavy electro-pop since they signed to Razor Boy Music Publishing in 2008. They have co-writing credits on David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s Grammy Award-winning “When Love Takes Over,” and their soaring single “Hold On” peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs in June 2013.

The sisters, who originally worked as models before switching over to production and songwriting, recently released their debut studio album Collateral in July. Filled with features that include Nile Rodgers and Kylie Minogue, it’s an up-tempo album brimming with a tried-and-true EDM feel, tons of bass drops and heavily modulated vocals in perfect synchronization with computerized sounds.