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Women in music have occupied many roles in the art over the centuries and have been responsible for a multitude of contributions, shaping movements, genres, and trends as singers, Songwriter, Composer, Musician, and music teacher, and in behind-the-scenes roles. At the same time, however, many roles in music have been closed to or not encouraged for women. There has been growing awareness of this since perhaps the 1960s, and doors have been opening.
Women's music refers to music created by and directed towards women. It may explore political and social topics, influencing and impacting creativity, activism, and culture.
Von Bingen (1098–1179), a German Benedictines abbess, was a composer, writer, and philosopher. One of her works as a writer and composer, the Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues), is an early example of liturgical drama and an early morality play. Seventy-seven of her sequences, each with its own original poetic text, survive, one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers.
She also composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a Song cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (Symphony of the harmony of heavenly revelations). The songs from the Symphonia are set to her own text and range from , , and sequences to Responsory.Maddocks, Fiona. Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 194. Her music is described as monophony, using melodies that pushed the boundaries of traditional Gregorian chant.
Maria Teresa Agnesi (1720–1795) was an Italian composer, harpsichordist, and singer. Her career was made possible by the Austrian Lombardy, which was around women's rights.
Princess Anna Amalia (1723–1787) was a composer. She learned to play the harpsichord, flute, and violin at a young age. She became the abbess of Quedlinburg in 1755. (1989). 9782901138051, Laballery. ISBN 9782901138051 She achieved fame as a composer and is known for her smaller chamber works, including trios, marches, , songs, and . She was also a curator and collector of music scores, preserving over 600 volumes of works by composers Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, Karl Heinrich Graun, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Elisabeth Olin (1740–1828) was a Swedish opera singer and composer. She became a vocalist in regular public concerts at the Riddarhuset ( House of Nobility) in Stockholm. She was the prima donna of the Swedish opera for a decade. In 1773, she became the first woman to be granted the title Hovsångare (court singer), and in 1782 she was inducted as the first female member into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Henriette Adélaïde Villard de Beaumesnil (1748–1813) was a French composer and opera singer. She began working in minor comedy roles at age seven and debuted as a soloist at the Paris Opera in 1766. She was the second woman to have a composition performed at the Paris Opéra.
Marianne von Martínez (1744–1812) was an Austrian composer, singer and pianist. Metastasio noticed her precocious talents and came to oversee her musical education, which included keyboard lessons from Haydn, singing lessons with Porpora, and composition lessons with Johann Adolph Hasse and imperial court composer Giuseppe Bonno. She played for the imperial court, where she gained attention for her voice and keyboard playing, and was frequently asked to perform before Empress Maria Theresa.
Harriett Abrams (1758–1821) was an English composer and soprano. As a singer, she was praised for her performances of George Frideric Handel's work. She studied singing, music theory, and composition with composer Thomas Arne before making her opera début in 1775 at the Theatre Royal in London. She became a principal singer at London concerts and provincial festivals, appearing regularly from 1780 to 1790.
Jane Mary Guest (1762–1846) was an English composer and pianist. A pupil of Johann Christian Bach and initially composing in the galante music style, She composed keyboard , other keyboard works, and vocal works with keyboard accompaniment. She was the piano teacher of Princess Amelia of the UK and Princess Charlotte of Wales.
She was also instrumental in changing the kind of programs expected of concert pianists. In her early career, she played what was then customary, mainly bravura pieces designed to showcase her technique, often in the form of arrangements or variations on popular themes from operas, written by virtuosos such as Thalberg, Henri Herz, or Henselt. As it was also customary to play one's own compositions, she included at least one of her own works in every program, works such as her "Variations on a Theme by Bellini" (Op. 8) and her popular "Scherzo" (Op. 10). Her works include songs, piano pieces, a piano concerto, a piano trio, choral pieces, and three Romances for violin and piano.
For instance, Chicago music critic George P. Upton argued that "women lacked the innate creativity to compose good music" due to what he referred to as their biological predisposition. Later, however, it was accepted that women would have a role in music education, and as part of that role women wrote hymns and children's music, but not much in the way of secular music in America; indeed, only around seventy such works can be found before 1880.
In the mid-19th century, however, women songwriters emerged, including Faustina Hasse Hodges, Susan McFarland Parkhurst, Augusta Browne, and Marion Dix Sullivan. By 1900, their numbers had grown, though many used pseudonyms or initials to hide their sex.
Women influenced jazz music by producing, composing, and performing it. One early influential woman was Bessie Smith ("Empress of the Blues"). She is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; in 1989, Smith was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Another woman who made history in the jazz industry is Dolly Jones, the first female jazz trumpeter to be recorded. Women such as Billie Pierce, Lovie Austin, Jeanette Kimball, Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, and Hazel Scott all had an impact on the jazz genre.
Women often began their careers playing in an all-women's jazz group. Valaida Snow was known as the "Queen of the Trumpet". Nona Hendryx was a jazz vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.
World War II opened many doors for female artists; however, once the men came home from war, female jazz musicians faced difficulties such as sexual harassment and harsh criticism.
Notable women singer-songwriters include:
The gender imbalance in musical theater continues in the 21st century with women making up, as reported in 2019, only 3% of wind band composers and 12% of choral composers. Despite the scarcity of women in musical theater composition, over fifty women have received international recognition for composing musical scores for Broadway theatre and Off-Broadway productions.
Many artists also sang and wrote songs, but these artists played an Instrumentalist:
All-female bands also played rock and roll, including Goldie & the Gingerbreads in 1964, the Pleasure Seekers with Suzi Quatro in 1964, the Feminine Complex in 1968, and Fanny in 1969. Others included the Liverbirds (1962–1967), the Ace of Cups (1967), the Heart Beats (1968), and Ariel (1968–1970).
In 1989, the Dixie Chicks rose from street corners in Dallas, Texas, to become the most successful ever. The band is a trio with Natalie Maines as lead singer, Natalie Maguire on the fiddle and mandolin, and Emily Robison on banjo, the Dobro, guitar, and the accordion. They won five Grammys, the Country Music Association's Album of the Year, and the Vocal Group of the Year award in 2002.
Another band was the WildWood Girls. Beginning in 1979 from the Chicago area, the band became a family affair. They performed for the USO and Department of Defense, worked at Dollywood, and at Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival. They released six recordings.
The Happy Hollow Stringband (1974–1979) played bluegrass, with Sandy Crisco on banjo. Crisco reported that it could be difficult to find the ladies restroom during bookings, as many male instrumentalists did not know where it was.
Rock historian Helen Reddington claimed that many or most punk women musicians were more interested in the ideology and sociopolitical implications than on fashion (fishnet stockings, spiky blond hair, etc.) Johnny Rotten wrote that "During the Pistols era, women were out there playing with the men, taking us on in equal terms... It wasn't combative, but compatible." (1995). 9780312428136, Coronet. ISBN 9780312428136 Women instrumentalists were involved in bands such as the Slits, the Raincoats, Mo-dettes, Dolly Mixture, and the Innocents.
This egalitarian view was challenged by guitarist Viv Albertine, however, who commented: "the A&R men, the bouncers, the sound mixers, no one took us seriously... So, no, we got no respect anywhere we went. People just didn't want us around." Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon added, "I think women are natural anarchists, because you're always operating in a male framework."
In rock, bands such as Hole, Super Heroines, The Lovedolls and L7 became popular, offering self-confident and "bad" attitudes, challenging assumptions about how an all-female band should behave. Courtney Love described Hole's artistic ambitions as "not only repeating what men have done" while "coming at things from a more feminine, lunar, viewpoint.
In the 1990s, the punk, female-led Riot Grrrl movement was associated with bands such as Bratmobile and Bikini Kill.
In pop music, two commercial groups briefly rose to fame. Destiny's Child was an American group composed of Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began as Girl's Tyme in 1990 and became Destiny's Child in 1997. The Spice Girls was a British pop group composed of Mel B, Melanie C, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, and Victoria Beckham. Their single "Wannabe" came out in 1996 and reached number one in 37 countries.
all-female band include The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and orchestras such as the Hour of Charm Orchestra. During World War II, these groups entertained the troops while the male musicians served. However, after the war, the public favored the "normalcy" signaled by male musicians.
Vocalist June Norton was the first black woman in the Washington, D.C. area to appear singing in TV commercials marketed towards southern states. This led to her accomplishments of many awards including the 1962 Achievement Award from the National Association of Colored Women; the TV Personality of the Year award; the 1962 Emphasis Award from the National Association of Market Development; and the 1962 Singer of the Year Award from the YMCA.
Pianist, composer, and vocalist Shirley Horn recorded more than 25 albums and worked as a side musician for Stuff Smith, Toots Thielemans, Charlie Haden, and Oscar Peterson. Her debut recording, Embers and Ashes, attracted attention. A few months after, Miles Davis contacted Horn and told the Village Vanguard that he refused to play unless Horn opened for him. She received many awards including a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best Jazz Vocal Album for I Remember Miles; five Washington Area Music Awards; an honorary music degree from the Berklee College of Music; and a 2004 NEA Jazz Master Fellowship and Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In the album era, promoters did not hesitate to use performers' physical attractiveness to gain exposure, increase sales, and even to select performers to promote. Although some artists rejected this approach, those who complied tended to achieve greater success.
Women were accepted in orchestras as harp players before being accepted on other instruments, as the harp was considered a "women's instrument". In 1922, harpist Stephanie Goldner became the first female member of the New York Philharmonic. One hundred years later, women outnumbered men there.
In the 1990s, to circumvent gender bias, some orchestras adopted Blind audition, requiring candidates to perform behind a screen. The practice continued into the 21st century, despite objections that equity could be advanced by modifying the practice.
A 1980s study reported that women made up 36% of US orchestras; 30% in the United Kingdom, and 16% in East and West Germany. Their chances of being hired orchestras were greater in less prominent ones.
At one point, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) argued that "ethnic and gender uniformity" gave their orchestra a better sound. Several male VPO musicians stated in a 1996 interview that classical music has "gender-defined qualities which can be most clearly expressed by male uniformity"; and first flautist Dieter Flury was of the opinion that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity (emotionelle Geschlossenheit) that this organism currently has."
Only after protests by the National Organization for Women and International Association of Women in Music while the orchestra was touring in 1997 did the VPO accept women to permanent membership, agreeing to admit Anna Lelkes as a harpist. , the VPO had six female members. Violinist Albena Danailova became one of the orchestra's in 2008, the first woman to hold that position. VPO president Clemens Hellsberg said that VPO used .
The Czech Philharmonic excludes women. The Berlin Philharmonic was reported to have a history of gender discrimination. Of the orchestras ranked among the world's top five by Gramophone in 2008, the last to appoint a woman to a permanent position was the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2013, an article in Mother Jones stated that "many prestigious orchestras have significant female membership—women outnumber men in the New York Philharmonic's violin section—and several renowned ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Minnesota Symphony, are led by women violinists. Brass, percussion, and Double bass orchestra sections are still predominantly male."
In some styles of music, singers may play a rhythm section instrument, such as rhythm guitar, electric bass, or a percussion instrument while they sing. In some styles of pop, singers perform choreographed dance moves during the show. Women pop singers known for elaborate dance routines in their live shows include Cher, Madonna, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga.
Cher has been described as "a pioneer of female autonomy during a Patriarchy era who paved a way in a sexist industry with her music." She recalls that era as "a time when girl singers were patted on the head for being good and told not to think"; but her image eventually changed due to her "refusal of dependence on a man and the determination ... to refuse the conventional role assigned to women over forty years old in an industry that Ageism." Madonna, also a key figure in popular music, has also been credited with paving the way for female artists and permanently changing the music industry for women and today's pop stars. Other influential female contemporaries include Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Kate Bush, Kylie Minogue, Nina Hagen, Olivia Newton-John, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, and Tina Turner.
Singer-songwriter and music producer Björk has commented that the male collaborators of female singers are typically credited for the sound of their recordings because people see them on stage and assume they don't produce recordings or play an instrument. Lady Gaga has also weighed in on the difficulties faced by female recording artists because of the similarity of the music industry to a boys' club that they can't get into. Along the same lines,
A University Press of Kentucky book states that customers did not treat a woman who worked at a guitar store like she knew anything about guitars until she would use special guitar terms. Indie folk singer-songwriter/guitarist Ani di Franco states that for women, in the past, even entering a guitar store was an "act of courage" because it felt like a "boys' club". Not only do female artists feel the pressure to please their male counterparts but it is also difficult for female DJs to fit in, in a male-dominated field.
Women in funk music include Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, and Betty Davis. Despite funk's popularity in modern music, few have examined the work of funk women. As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay "She Was too Black for Rock and too hard for Soul: (Re)discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis", most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men. She states that "Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock. Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic), and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility."
Some of the most influential female singers since the 2000s include Adele, Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande, Avril Lavigne, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Britney Spears, Charli XCX, Christina Aguilera, Dua Lipa, Florence Welch, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus, Pink, Rihanna, Shakira, SZA, and Taylor Swift. Most of them write their own songs, and some also produce music.
In East Asian pop music, during the 2010s, Japanese idol girl groups have been very successful in what is the largest physical music market in the world—and second largest overall—with 17 number-one singles just in 2017. The best-selling among all the J-pop idol girl groups, AKB48, is the best-selling act in Japan ever by number of singles sold—and third by total number of records sold—and has had as well the best-selling single in the country every year of the decade so far. Also, the best-selling album ever in the country, First Love, released in 1999, is by a woman, Japanese American singer and songwriter Hikaru Utada. South Korean idol girl groups have also been very successful the 2010s, with Twice having the best-performing single of 2016 in the country, as well as having won a total of 43 awards since their debut in October 2015. Another highly successful Korean idol girl group this decade is Blackpink, reaching the highest place ever for a K-pop girl group on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as being the first K-pop girl group to be number-one on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart. They have also won a total of 16 awards since their debut in August 2016. K-pop has become increasingly popular in the US with many idol girl groups climbing their way up the leaderboards. However, most of the popularity is going towards male groups, with female groups being overshadowed by the concept of a boys-only club. Chinese idol girl groups have also recently achieved significant success, with C-pop groups like SNH48 and Rocket Girls 101, with the latter selling over 1.6 million copies of their debut Extended play in 2018.
Ma Rainey (1886–1939), known as the "Mother of the Blues", is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902. New York-based cabaret singer Mamie Smith recorded "Crazy Blues" in 1920, which sold over 75,000 copies. Smith became known as "America's First Lady of the Blues". In 1920, the vaudeville singer Lucille Hegamin became the second black woman to record blues when she recorded "The Jazz Me Blues". Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, Mary Stafford, Katie Crippen, Edith Wilson, and Esther Bigeou, among others, made their first recordings before the end of 1921. These blues recordings were typically labeled as "race records" to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. (2025). 9780470656808, Wiley. ISBN 9780470656808 Marion Harris became one of the first white female singers to record the blues.
The most popular of the classic blues singers was Tennessee-born Bessie Smith (no relation to Mamie Smith), who first recorded in 1923 and became known as the "Empress of the Blues". She signed with Columbia Records and became the highest-paid black artist of the 1920s, recording over 160 songs. Other classic blues singers who recorded extensively until the end of the 1920s were Ida Cox, Clara Smith, and Sara Martin. These early blues singers were an influence on later singers such as Mahalia Jackson and Janis Joplin. These blues women's contributions to the genre included "increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered the emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails. The blues women thus effected changes in other types of popular singing that had spin-offs in jazz, , of the 1930s and 1940s, gospel music, rhythm and blues, and eventually rock and roll."
Bro-country may be influenced by historical aspects of Southern culture which have been associated with racism and sexism. Women in country music continue to face these issues and often find no way to directly deal with them. Kacey Musgraves, a recording artist, describes her experience with sexism in country music by stating that if a label fails to get a woman's song off the ground, it is immediately blamed on their personality or the fact that they are female, or that they did not make a radio station program director feel important. Women like Kacey Musgraves, no matter what they do or change, will almost always fall under some form of scrutiny from her male competitors.
A large number of women singers in the country music genre have been influential to the industry through their success. Despite the popularity of male country artists and the discrimination that is displayed throughout their music, many female artists have worked their way past, leading them to achieve multiple accomplishments.
Dolly Parton, a female country singer who has been in the industry for over 55 years, developed a successful career for herself. Parton consistently created new projects to release to her fans and was described as "unstoppable" by Rolling Stone magazine. These projects include over 45 musical albums, multiple film features, a Dollywood theme park, and the creation of a production company.
Carrie Underwood, the iconic American Idol winner, also created a lasting impact in the country music genre. With over 251,000 units sold, Underwood's album Cry Pretty was her fourth album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 list. Blown Away, Play On and Carnival Ride were the other three albums that also reached the top of the charts. These achievements led her to become the first woman singer to have four country albums as number one in the all-genre Billboard 200. Underwood had multiple other number ones throughout her career, surpassing many other popular artists, as she left a strong impact on the female country music industry.
A women's rights activist and animal lover, Miranda Lambert, is another woman known to have a dominating career within the music industry. Her songs titled "Over You" and "Heart Like Mine" took over the Billboard charts and country music radio stations in 2010 and 2011. As a solo female artist, she writes her music through honesty and reality. The messages sent through her music are intended to help other women not to feel alone as they go through difficult life situations. Lambert uses the fame she has earned from the music industry and works with charities like the Humane Society as a way to give back.
Brazilian actress, singer and dancer Carmen Miranda became known in the West as an Exoticism supplement in Hollywood films in the 1930s, akin to dancer Josephine Baker before, and the voice of exotica, Yma Sumac, after her. In the 1960s Elis Regina was the most prominent female bossa nova singer, which influenced popular music around the world. In the 1960s and 1970s Argentinian folk singer Mercedes Sosa, South African Miriam Makeba, and Greek Maria Farantouri were also recognized for their engagement against the oppressive political situations in their home states. Sosa singing "Gracias a la vida", Makeba's "Pata Pata", and Farantouri's collaboration with composer Mikis Theodorakis were musical icons of the struggle for human rights. The "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz immigrated from Cuba to the United States in 1966.
With the rising interest in the then so-called world music in the 1980s old recordings of long established artists were re-discovered for a global audience and distributed worldwide; well known in their home country—sometimes stars with legendary status—like Arabic singers Umm Kulthum, Asmahan, and Fairuz, the Algerian raï singer Cheikha Rimitti, Asha Bhosle—the most prolific playback singer for Bollywood film soundtracks, Romani Esma Redžepova, Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, and the Mahotella Queens from South Africa; or they were recorded for the first time (by Caucasian males) like Cesária Évora from Cape Verde, Stella Chiweshe from Zimbabwe and Afro-Peruvian Susana Baca.
There are many women world music performers, including: Ann Savoy, Bi Kidude, Brenda Fassie, Chabuca Granda, Chava Alberstein, Cleoma Breaux Falcon, Dolly Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Frehel, Gal Costa, Genoa Keawe, Googoosh, Hazel Dickens, Jean Ritchie, Lata Mangeshkar, Leah Song, Lola Beltrán, Lucha Reyes, Lucilla Galeazzi (The Mammas), Lydia Mendoza, Maria Tanase, Mariam Doumbia, Nada Mamula, Ofra Haza, Oumou Sangare, Rita Marley, Rosa Passos, Roza Eskenazi, Safiye Ayla, Salamat Sadikova, Selda Bagcan, Shirley Collins, Valya Balkanska, Violeta Parra, Warda, Marta Gómez and Zap Mama.
In the 9th century, using male instrumentalists was harshly criticized in a treatise because they were associated with perceived vices such as playing chess and writing love poetry. Following the invasion of Egypt, Napoleon commissioned reports on the state of Ottoman Empire culture. The report reveals that there were of male instrumentalists who played to male audiences, and "learned female" singer/musicians who sang and played for women audiences.
Women musicians also play a key role in Chinese folk music. In southern Fujian and Taiwan, Nanyin or Nanguan music is a genre of traditional Chinese folk ballads. It sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao flute and a pipa, as well as other traditional instruments. The music is sung in the Minnan topolect. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with the topic of a love-stricken woman.
The Chinese pop (C-pop) music industry in the 1930s and 1940s was dominated by the Seven Great Singing Stars, who were the most renowned singers of China in the 1940s. Zhou Xuan, Gong Qiuxia, Yao Lee and Bai Hong emerged in the 1930s; afterwards Bai Guang, Li Xianglan and Wu Yingyin became popular in the 1940s. After 1949, the early generations of C-pop were denounced by the Chinese Communist Party as Yellow Music as it saw pop music as sexually indecent (the color yellow is associated with eroticism and sex in China). Only after the end of the Cultural Revolution, by the early 1980s, could Yellow Music be performed again.
Nowadays, after China's extensive political and cultural changes of the past 50 years, Chinese popular music has been increasingly emulating and taking inspiration from the styles of popular music of South Korea (K-pop) and of Japan (J-pop), both of which it now closely resembles. As such, during the 2010s, several girl groups have been established based both on the Japanese model, like SNH48 (created in 2012) and its sister groups, as well as on the Korean model, like Rocket Girls, created in 2018 from the Chinese version of a Korean reality television talent competition show. These groups have achieved significant success, with the debut Extended play of Rocket Girls selling over 1.6 million copies. Despite this, solo Chinese female artists continue to be much more popular overall in the country, as they have traditionally been. Some of the most recently popular solo Chinese female singers include Faye Wong, G.E.M. Gloria Tang, Lala Hsu, , Ada Zhuang, Kelly Yu, Chen Li (陳粒]]), Feng Timo, Bibi Zhou, (), Tia Ray, Vanessa Jin (金玟岐]]) and Jane Zhang.
In Indian folk music, lavani is a music genre popular in Maharashtra that is traditionally performed by women. Bhangra () is a form of dance-oriented folk music of Punjab region. The present musical style is derived from non-traditional musical accompaniment to the riffs of Punjab called by the same name. The female dance of Punjab region is known as Giddha (ਗਿੱਧਾ).
In the music of Bollywood (the centre of India's film industry) and other regional film industries in India, women playback singers have had a significant role, with the sisters Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, who have mainly worked in Hindi films, often referred to as two of the best-known and most prolific playback singers in India. In 2011, Bhosle was officially acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history.
The classical singer Fatemeh Vaezi (commonly known by her stage name Parisa) has given concerts accompanied by a female orchestra. After 1986 Maryam Akhondy started working with other Iranian musicians in exile. In 2000 Maryam Akhondy created the all-female a cappella group Banu which sung old folk songs that were part of women's activities and celebrations. Singer Sima Bina has taught many female students. Ghashang Kamkar teaches both male and female students. Both Ghashang and Vaezi have criticized the patriarchal power structure in Iran for its treatment of female musicians.Fereshteh Javaheri, 'With These Problems of Life, There Is No Time for Art,' trans. Maryam Habibian, Zanan, No. 36 (1997), p. 23. Iranian folk-music performers include Sima Bina, Darya Dadvar, Monika Jalili, Ziba Shirazi, Zohreh Jooya, and Shusha Guppy. Iranian pop performers include Googoosh, Hayedeh, Mahasti, Leila Forouhar, Pooran, and Laleh Pourkarim. World music performers include Azam Ali and Cyminology.
Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated with new musicology who incorporates feminism music criticism in her work. McClary holds a PhD from Harvard University. One of her best known works is Feminine Endings (1991), which covers musical constructions of gender and sexuality, gendered aspects of traditional music theory, gendered sexuality in musical narrative, music as a gendered discourse and issues affecting women musicians. In the book, McClary suggests that the sonata form (used in symphonies and string quartets) may be a sexist or procedure that constructs of gender and sexual identity. McClary's Conventional Wisdom (2000) argues that the traditional musicological assumption of the existence of "purely musical" elements, divorced from culture and meaning, the social and the body, is a conceit used to veil the social and political imperatives of the worldview that produces the classical canon most prized by supposedly objective musicologists.
Other women scholars include:
Women have also made significant contributions in ethnomusicology, especially in the intersection of gender studies and ethnomusicology. Ellen Koskoff, professor emerita at the Eastman School of Music, has done extensive work on gender in ethnomusicology. Koskoff has also served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and hosted a radio show called "What in the World is Music?"
In "An Introduction to Women, Music, and Culture" (1987), Koskoff argues that music performed by women is "devalued" and in some cases, is even considered "non-music", despite having "musical form". Koskoff explains that the distinction that men occupy public spheres and women occupy private, domestic ones has, "created not necessarily two separate and self-contained music cultures, but rather two differentiated yet complementary halves of culture. She reasons that because "In most societies, a woman's identity is believed to be embedded in her sexuality," "one of the most common associations between women and music... links women's primary sexual identity and role with music performance." Based on this association, Koskoff argues that "Four categories of music performance thus emerge in connection with inter-gender relations: (1) performance that confirms and maintains the established social/sexual arrangement; (2) performance that appears to maintain the established norms in order to protect other, more relevant values; (3) performance that protests, yet maintains, the order (often through symbolic behavior); and (4) performance that challenges and threatens established order."
Deborah Wong, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, is known for her focus on the music of Southeast Asia and Asian American music-making, and has also studied taiko, or Japanese American drumming.
Other women ethnomusicologists include:
Despite the limitations imposed on women's roles in music education in the 19th century, women were accepted as kindergarten teachers, because this was deemed to be a "private sphere". Women also taught music privately, in girl's schools, Sunday schools, and they trained musicians in school music programs. By the turn of the 20th century, women began to be employed as music supervisors in elementary schools, teachers in normal schools and professors of music in universities. Women also became more active in professional organizations in music education, and women presented papers at conferences.
A woman, Frances Clarke (1860–1958), founded the Music Supervisors National Conference in 1907. While a small number of women served as president of the Music Supervisors National Conference (and the following renamed versions of the organization over the next century) in the early 20th century, there were only two female presidents between 1952 and 1992, which "possibly reflects discrimination." After 1990, however, leadership roles for women in the organization opened up. From 1990 to 2010, there were five female presidents of this organization. Women music educators "outnumber men two-to-one" in teaching general music, choir, private lessons, and keyboard instruction. More men tend to be hired as for band education, administration and jazz jobs, and more men work in colleges and universities. According to Dr. Sandra Wieland Howe, there is still a "glass ceiling" for women in music education careers, as there is "stigma" associated with women in leadership positions and "men outnumber women as administrators."
While there is a lack of women in professional orchestra, more recent studies show that the conducting profession itself lacks gender and racial diversity. There is a clear distinction between the low number of white women in the field compared to that of white men, but there is an even lower number of other racial and ethnic identities. The proportion of non-white musicians represented in the orchestra workforce—and of African American and Hispanic/Latino musicians in particular—remains extremely low. The field of orchestra continues to remain predominantly white. Positions such as conductors, executives, and staff are dominated by white individuals, in particular, white males. In high level executive positions, it remains rare to see women or people of color. However, the gender gap narrowed in the early 1990s, with women musicians making up between 46% and 49% of the total musician pool in the two decades since. The years 1980 to 2014 saw a four-fold increase in the proportion of diverse musicians on stage, driven largely by an increase in musicians from Asian / Pacific Islander backgrounds. Over the years, more attention was brought to gender and racial disparity in the field. This awareness has caused positive impacts in the orchestrating field. Data about conductors from 2006 to 2016 reveals there is a gradual but steady trend towards greater racial and ethnic diversity, with the percentage of African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian / Pacific Islander, American Indian / Alaskan Native, and other non-white conductors increasing from 15.7% in 2006 to 21% in 2016. Although there has been reconstruction of the whiteness and gender domination of males in the field, there is still work to be done.
Many women within the orchestrating profession experience forms of discrimination whether it be gender, racial, or both. Women, initially, were not encouraged to play professionally because it was deemed inappropriate by society. Women were further considered neither strong enough nor skilled enough to play instruments other than the piano, or to survive grueling rehearsal schedules. Jeri Lynne Johnson was the first African-American woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Concordia conducting fellowship in 2005. She is the founder and music director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the first multi-ethnic professional orchestra in Philadelphia. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago, she is a conductor, composer and pianist. From 2001 to 2004, she was the assistant conductor of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She has led orchestras around the world including the Colorado Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony (UK), and the Weimar Staatskapelle (Germany). Alongside prominent woman conductors Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta, Ms. Johnson was heralded on the NBC The Today Show as one of the nation's leading female conductors.
According to the UK's Radio 3 editor, Edwina Wolstencroft, "The music world has been happy to have female performers ... for a long time ... But owning authority and power in public is another matter. That's where female conductors have had a hard time. Our society is more resistant to women being powerful in public than to women being entertaining." The low percentage of women conductors is not because women do not study in music school; indeed, in 2009 and 2012 almost half of the recipients of conducting doctorates were women.
The turn for women's rights in music began the feminist movement in America in 1848. The movement fueled all women to fight for equal rights in a plethora of fields such as voting, education, employment, and marriage. While the women's rights movement meant the start of including women into the orchestrating field, there would still be barriers they needed to overcome. Women of color, in particular, were faced with many stereotypes that challenged the worthiness of their work. In fact, black women's work in the field faced more scrutiny than that of their white counterparts.
Ann Powers, a female music critic, journalist, and chief pop-music critic for the Los Angeles Times has critiqued the perceptions of sex in the music industry. In 2006, she was appointed chief pop-music critic for the Los Angeles Times.
Anwen Crawford, a writer for The Monthly, "explores women's long struggle for visibility and recognition in the field of rock criticism, even though we've been helping to pioneer it from the start" stating that "female expertise, when it appears, is repeatedly dismissed as fraudulent. Every woman who has ever ventured an opinion on popular music could give you some variation of." She notes that the "most famous rock-music critics... are all male."
Despite this, women haven been taking on the challenge since the 1940s. Mary Shipman Howard was an engineer in New York City in the 1940s. Lillian McMurry was a record producer and founder of Trumpet Records in the 1950s. One of the first women to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label was Cordell Jackson (1923–2004). She founded the Moon Records label in Memphis in 1956 and began releasing and promoting on the label singles she recorded in her home studio, serving as engineer, producer and arranger. Ethel Gabriel had a 40-year career with RCA and was the first major label record producer.
Trina Shoemaker is a mixer, record producer and sound engineer responsible for producing/engineering and/or mixing records for bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Something for Kate, Nanci Griffith and many more. In 1998 Shoemaker became the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for her work on The Globe Sessions. In addition to Crow, Shoemaker went on to work with artists such as Blues Traveller, Emmylou Harris, the Indigo Girls and the Dixie Chicks.
Other women include:
Lucy Green has focused on gender in relation to musical performers and creators, and specifically on educational frameworks as they relate to both. She suggests that women's alienation from "areas that have a strong technological tendency such as DJing, sound engineering and producing" are "not necessarily about her dislike of these instruments but relates to the interrupting effect of their dominantly masculine delineations." Despite this, women and girls do increasingly engage in turntable and DJ practices, individually and collectively, and "carve out spaces for themselves in EDM and DJ Culture." There are various projects dedicated to the promotion and support of these practices, such as Female DJs London. Some artists and collectives go beyond these practices to be more gender-inclusive. For example, Discwoman, a New York-based collective and booking agency, describe themselves as "representing and showcasing cis women, trans women and genderqueer talent."
Now Girls Rule features several annual events. Girl Camps feature music and fanzine design lessons for young girls ages 7–17; all teachers are established woman artists from the Mexican music scene. The format was created for young aspiring artists to meet and learn from women who have pursued their dreams and worked to make a living from their art, so they can be inspired to develop careers in music and art. Now Girls Rule Nights are a series of live concerts featuring established women artists and women-fronted bands, while inviting up-and-coming women-fronted acts to perform, to reach new crowds. Now Girls Rule Networkings are a space where professional women of various backgrounds and women artists come together to meet and talk about their work in the hopes of joining forces in new ventures and projects. La Marketa, the first-ever all-women artists' bazaar in Mexico, was created so that artists can directly sell their merchandise to their fans and keep 100% of their sales. La Marketa is an all-age, gender-inclusive, and pet-friendly event featuring live performances by some of the artists. Elis Paprika also hosts the Now Girls Rule Podcast, a weekly show through Vive Latino's Señal VL channel, that features music by women artists and women-fronted acts she has met around the world while touring.Female artists from the Middle East, such as Iranian-Turkish performer AIDAZ, have emerged in the electronic and visual music scenes, blending traditional culture with modern performance art.
Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, Human sexuality, racism, patriarchy, and female empowerment. Bands associated with the movement include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, Huggy Bear, Cake Like, Skinned Teen, Emily's Sassy Lime, Sleater-Kinney, and also queercore groups like Team Dresch. In addition to a music scene and genre, riot grrrl is a subculture involving a DIY ethic, , art, political action, and activism. Riot grrrls are known to hold meetings, start chapters, and support and organize women in music.
The use of the word girl was meant to indicate a time when girls are least influenced by societal pressures and therefore have the strongest self-esteem—childhood. The anger behind the movement was noted by the alternate spelling of the word as , which sounds like a growl.
They partook in a new type of punk feminism that promoted the idea of do-it-yourself, exchanging and trading mixed tapes of favorite bands to get the word out. They were tired of women being erased from history or having their experiences misinterpreted and ignored by others. In response to patriarchal violence, adultism, and heterocentrism, riot grrrls engage in negative emotional expressions and rhetoric similar to that of feminism and the punk aesthetic. The feminist argument that "the personal is political" was revisited in the image that riot grrrl set forth, similarly to the culture of punk that self-actualization is not to be found in external forces but rather through an individual's true self. By recognizing and reevaluating the institutional structures that affect individual experiences within social situations, an individual can gain the knowledge to better know herself and therefore know how to present herself to others so that they may know her accurately. Riot grrrl termed this movement to self-actualization girl love—"girls learning to love themselves, and each other, against those forces that would otherwise see them destroyed or destroy themselves."
The accompanying slogan "every girl is a riot grrrl" reinforces the solidarity that women can find amongst themselves. This creates an intimate aesthetic and sentimental politic well expressed in the production of zines (a shortened version of fanzines). are handmade, crafted by individuals who want to connect directly with their readers, with simple items like scissors, glue, and tape. They call out injustices and challenge the norms that typically direct the expression of sexuality and domestic abuse, providing a space for women to exchange personal stories to which many others could relate. They challenge girls and women alike to stand up for themselves in a political atmosphere that actively seeks to silence them. The shared personal stories have been, at times, met with attitudes that reduced the communication to "it's all just girls in their bedrooms, sprawled out writing in their diaries, and then they'll send them to each other", while the choice to share in that way is an aesthetic one.
In the midst of this raising of awareness, riot grrrls had to address the generalizations that worked for them but that could not apply to women of color. Not all girls could be riot grrrl after all, for lack of privilege barred them from participating in such acts as writing SLUT across their stomach in an attempt to reclaim sexual agency. While the performance is an earnest one, racism had already labeled women of color as that term. As observed by Kearny, "the gender deviance displayed by riot grrrls is a privilege to which only middle-class white girls have access." Another aspect of this need for inclusive discourse arose in the movement's preference for concrete knowledge and a disregard for the abstract that would foster theoretical inquiry.
An example of a festival that focuses on music is the Women in Music Festival held by the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The festival began in 2005 as a celebration of the contributions of women to composition, performance, teaching, scholarship, and music administration. From its modest beginnings of Eastman students and faculty members performing music by women composers, the Festival has grown to include additional concerts and events throughout Rochester, New York, and to host composers-in-residence, who have included Tania León (2007), Nancy Van de Vate (2008), Judith Lang Zaimont (2009), Emma Lou Diemer (2010), and Hilary Tann (2011). The festival has presented more than 291 different works by 158 composers.
Many other festivals have been created throughout the United States and Canada since the mid-1970s and vary in size from a few hundred to thousands of attendees. The Los Angeles Women's Music Festival began in 2007 with over 2500 attendees. Events outside the US include the Sappho Lesbian Witch Camp, near Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada and the Sistajive Women's Music Festival in Australia. Some festivals are focused around the lesbian community, such as the Ohio Lesbian Festival, near Columbus, Ohio, which was created in 1988; Christian Lesbians Out (CLOUT), which holds a gathering in early August in Washington, D.C.; The Old Lesbian Gathering, a festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and RadLesFes, an event held in the middle of November near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Feminist-oriented festivals include the Southern Womyn's Festival in Dade City, Florida; the Gulf Coast Womyn's Festival in Ovett, Missouri; Wiminfest in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Womongathering, the Festival of Womyn's Spirituality; the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, near Hart, Michigan; and the Midwest Womyn's Festival in DeKalb, Illinois.
While women's music festivals are centered on music, they support many other facets of lesbian and feminist culture. Some festivals are designed to provide a safe space for women's music and culture. Many festivals are held on college campuses or in remote rural locations, where attendees stay in campsites. Many festivals offer workshops on arts, crafts, fitness, and athletic events that women may not be able find in mainstream culture. In her book Eden Built by Eves, Bonnie Morris describes how women's music festivals serve women throughout the stages of their lives. Since the festivals are organized by women, for women, daycare and childcare facilities are typically provided. Festivals often provide a safe space for coming of age rituals for young women, adult romance and commitment ceremonies, the expression of alternative perspectives on motherhood, and the expression of grief and loss.
The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, taking Lilith from the medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife. In 1997, Lilith Fair garnered a $16 million gross, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival. Among all concert tours for that year, it was the 16th highest grossing. The festival received several pejorative nicknames, including "Breast-fest" and "Girlapalooza".
In 1982, for example, Cosmopolitan published an article interviewing and profiling six women executives which found that, "For the first time, women are pioneering in the zany competitive, and very lucrative, pop-record industry". Only a few female executives were included in the chapter about women in the business side of the music industry in the encyclopedic book, She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul, which primarily focused on women musicians and vocalists.
The New York Times reported in 2021 that, "Three years ago, an academic tallied the performers, producers and songwriters behind hit songs, and found that women's representation fell on a scale between, roughly, poor and abysmal."
Despite advances in the 1970s and 1980s, female senior executives are still scarce in the music business today. According to a 2021 Annenberg study, "across 70 major and independent music companies...13.9% were women." Women fare far better outside the music industry; according to a 2021 report by U.S. News & World Report, "Women held 31.7% of top executive positions across all industries..."
The novel Appassionata by Jilly Cooper is set in the world of classical music and follows the career change of Abigail Rosen from vioin soloist to conductor.
Another prevalent form of discrimination towards female vocalists and musicians in the music industry is sexual misconduct. Many female musicians are afraid to come out about their experiences with sexual assault because their stories are dismissed as being overly sensitive to what is considered normal in the music industry. At the turn of the 20th century, however, many female vocalists such as Kesha, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Dua Lipa came forward with their stories, helping shape the anti-harassment movement. Additionally, under the MeToo movement, more stories of misconduct and discrimination in the music industry are being re-examined. Dua Lipa has spoken out about sexism in the music industry, saying that "women struggle to get recognition," as often the success of big female artists is discredited by a "man behind the woman".
Another form of sexism in the music industry appears in the lyrics. There are five major themes in lyrics from all genres that facilitate female discrimination, noted here by Sarah Neff: "portrayal of women in traditional gender roles, portrayal of women as inferior to men, portrayal of women as objects, portrayal of women as , and portrayal of violence against women." Utilizing a series of sexist markers, studies have found that countless lyrics entails sexist themes, including "depicting women in traditional , describing relationships with women in unrealistic ways, and attributing a woman's worth strictly on the basis of her physical appearance." Sexism in music is well-documented for genres such as rap and hip-hop, but with newer research, this holds true for country music, rock, and other genres as well.
Women conductors faced sexism, racism, and gender discrimination throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. "To break down this apparent employment barrier, women created their own opportunities by founding and organizing all-female orchestras"; one example is the Fadette Women's Orchestra in Boston founded in 1888 by conductor Caroline B. Nichols. A number of other all-women orchestras were founded in the early decades of the 20th century, and women conductors led these groups. Writer Ronnie Wooten notes, "It is both interesting and ironic that something that is considered 'universal' has historically excluded women (with the exception of certain stereotypically defined roles) and more specifically women of color." This comments on the fact that the underrepresentation of women in conducting is seen as a sexism issue, but is an issue of racism as well.
Women conductors continue to face sexism in the early decades of the 21st century. In the 2010s, several male conductors and musicians made sexist statements about women conductors. In 2013, Vasily Petrenko, the principal conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, provoked outrage when he told a Norwegian newspaper that "orchestras react better when they have a man in front of them". He also stated that "when women have families, it becomes difficult to be as dedicated as is demanded in the business". Bruno Mantovani, the director of the Paris Conservatoire, gave an interview in which he made sexist statements about women conductors. Mantovani raised the "problem of maternity" and he questioned the ability of women to withstand the physical challenges and stresses of the profession, which he claimed involve "conducting, taking a plane, taking another plane, conducting again." Yuri Temirkanov, the music director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, made sexist statements about women conductors in a September 2013 interview, stating that "The essence of the conductor's profession is strength. The essence of a woman is weakness." Finnish conductor Jorma Panula made sexist statements about women conductors in 2014; he stated that "women conductors... getting any better—only worse", which he called a "purely biological question".
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