Over the last two decades, one of the healthiest and most encouraging developments in the adult entertainment industry has been the increasingly central and visible leadership role played by women.

While it’s understandable if one’s mind leaps immediately to the public relations benefits to the adult industry in women establishing a higher profile therein, there’s a long list of concrete improvements and benefits flowing from this trend which are far more important than mere changes in perception.

Among other things, the emergence of women as adult business owners, in senior executive positions and as directors and/or producers has led to more diversity in the industry, both behind and in front of the camera. While it wouldn’t be accurate to suggest women have a set “style” which is always in stark contrast to that of male executives, business owners and filmmakers, any diversification of artistic and/or corporate vision tends to breathe new life into what can at time seem like a creatively stagnant entertainment sector.

Having more women in highly visible roles within the industry also helps reduce the extent to which the adult industry is seen as a “man’s world” – and more importantly, the extent to which the industry is a man’s world.

Ideally, this trend will have a self-perpetuating effect as well: The more women outside the industry see it as a place in people like themselves are thriving as entrepreneurs, performers and artists, the better they’ll feel about consuming its products, or even staking out their own career in adult.

While much of the focus on the rise of women in adult understandably has focused on women who appear to be conventional in their approach as business owners, executives or filmmakers (if indeed the word ‘conventional’ can be applied to anyone’s career arc in the context of the adult industry), there are many examples of women in adult blazing their trails in ways which are anything but the usual.

In the weeks ahead, YNOT will be featuring a series of interviews and profiles highlighting the contributions, achievements and impact of some of the industry’s more unconventional female leaders. In shedding light on their perspectives, strategies and experiences, hopefully they can inspire others who are more interested in

What do we mean by “unconventional”? Take Angela White, one of the women we’ll profile in the days ahead, for example: It’s not every day you hear about a staunch feminist academic who has just come off a movie set on which she performed in a double-anal scene.

In addition to White, we’ll be talking to an executive from a major adult studio, a highly successful cam performer working to organize the webcam community and one of the top attorneys serving the adult entertainment industry today. This eclectic mix of profile subjects reflects the wide variety of areas in which women are leading and influencing the modern adult industry.

In decades past, there have been times when adult companies have presented women, typically performers, as faces of their brands – but without giving them the autonomy or authority to truly do things their own way. For this reason, the mainstream media, porn-consuming public and critics of the industry are often skeptical about the notion of women occupying true leadership positions within the industry or running their own companies.

The modern wave of women leaders in adult is not comprised of figureheads and window dressing, however; they represent a true shift and long-overdue maturation of the adult entertainment space. We need not strain to celebrate the rise of women in adult at this point, simply because of what they are. To the contrary – we’re compelled to acknowledge their growing influence and achievement, because it is plainly manifest in what they do.