Ahead of the premiere of  “Real Country”, a new talent competition series on USA Network which follows Twain and fellow Nashville star Jake Owen as they discover rising country acts, Twain aired her grievances to ENews about the gender inequities that still plague her chosen genre of music.

“What women?” she exclaimed when asked about the state of female artists in country music today. “We have too much of the sameness right now. I’m a little bit bored of it, and I want to pick it up. The only way to do that is to be proactive … I wanted a show that, when you talk about diversity, that includes gender diversity, style diversity, lifestyle diversity.”

Twain also spoke out about the well-documented lack of female artists in country music, saying that the Nashville community is, at the very least, aware there’s a problem.  “We are not making radio progress,” she said, “but we are making very small, steady steps towards awareness that we’re lacking women on country radio.”

Twain, who turned 53 in August, also highlighted ageism within the industry, as she started to speak about advocating for “young” talent, before catching herself and amending her statement to apply to artists of all ages.  “It doesn’t matter what age you are,” she said. “I’m fed up with the whole ageist thing as well as the sexist thing. This (show) is wide open, bring your talent on if you’re good enough, I don’t care what you are, as long as you’re a human being.”