All my rocking ladies, don't bother putting your hands up

Nicole Atkins (left) is one of several female rockers who should have been nominated for a Grammy. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe/File 2008)

A reasonable list of nominees for the 2009 female rock vocal performance Grammy might have looked like this:

Nicole Atkins, "Neptune City" (Under-the-radar newcomer, left-field choice)

Sheryl Crow, "Detours" (Perennial Grammy favorite with an unjustly underrated midcareer release)

Jenny Lewis, "Acid Tongue" (Moderately hip, new-ish choice spawned from the indie rock field)

Joan Osborne, "Little Wild One" (Slightly older, not hip, but solid album from dependable rock belter)

Aimee Mann, "@#%&*! Smilers" (A make-good award to a great songwriter who made a decent record)

If you wanted to stick with Grammy favorites, regardless of the popularity or quality of the album or song - as the Recording Academy often does - you could also rope in releases by Alanis Morissette and Melissa Etheridge. Or you could venture farther off the beaten path to the likes of Cat Power and Sam Phillips, or to previous winners of the award who aren't usually thought of as "rock" singers, such as inaugural winner Donna Summer in 1980 or 2002 victor Lucinda Williams.

In reality, though, the Academy didn't create separate female and male rock vocal categories this year. Instead, for the fifth year in a row, there is simply a trophy for solo rock vocal performance. The nominees are:

"Gravity," John Mayer

"I Saw Her Standing There," Paul McCartney

"Girls in Their Summer Clothes," Bruce Springsteen

"Rise," Eddie Vedder

"No Hidden Path," Neil Young

See a pattern here? Not only did the Recording Academy decide there were no women worthy enough to warrant a separate field, not a single female rocker was nominated in the seemingly gender-neutral category that remained. And yet McCartney's live version of a 46-year-old song made the cut? Sure, it's a Beatles song, but really? (Crow's album was recognized in the pop vocal album race, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have been nominated in the rock category, too; Kid Rock and Coldplay managed to land spots in both the pop and rock fields.)

This turn of events is troubling. Yes, women have always made up a smaller percentage of rock musicians than men. (Female artists are even more scarce in rap; a decade after Lauryn Hill's historic sweep, don't bother looking for any female rap vocal performance competitors.) But think about all the great female rockers celebrated in the '80s and '90s - Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple. Are the Grammys really saying there's not a single rocking woman worth nominating now?

I'm not advocating for tokenism. Recognition should be earned. But when women are making creative, satisfying records - as the five women I mentioned at the beginning did - and the Academy eliminates their category outright and then doesn't include them in the one that's left, how can it possibly hope to inspire a new generation of girls to rock? We're glad to see women well represented in the pop, country, R&B, and jazz categories, but we'd like to see a few more ladies put their hands up and rock. And then have the Recording Academy recognize them, too.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.