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Women in Music perform many roles and make a wide range of contributions. Women shape music movements, genres and trends as composers, songwriters, instrumental performers, singers, conductors, and music educators. Women's music, created by and for women can explore women's rights and feminism. Women in music impact and influence creativity, activism, and culture.
In the 21st Century, a significant proportion popular music and classical music singers are women, and a significant proportion are songwriters (many of them being singer-songwriters). Despite this, few record producers, rock critics, or rock instrumentalists are women.
Female artists in pop music, exemplified by figures like Madonna, Billie Eilish, and Lady Gaga, have openly addressed the issue of sexism within the music industry.[1][2][3] A 2021 study stated that "...over the last six years, the representation of women in the music industry has been even lower."[4][5] Despite their substantial contributions (Medieval period to present day), women composers are significantly under-represented in the commonly performed classical music repertoire, music history textbooks, and music encyclopedias. For example, in the Concise Oxford History of Music, one of the only female composers mentioned is Clara Schumann.
While women constitute a significant proportion of instrumental soloists in classical music and the percentage of women in orchestras is increasing, a 2015 article on concerto soloists in major Canadian orchestras indicated that 84% of the soloists with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra were men. In 2012, women made up just 6% of the top-ranked Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. Not many women are instrumental players in popular music genres such as rock and heavy metal. Women are particularly underrepresented in extreme metal genres.[6]: 103 There have, however, been various female instrumentalists and singers in all-female bands.
Women are also under-represented in orchestral conducting, music criticism/music journalism, music producing, and sound engineering. While women were discouraged from composing in the 19th century, and there were few women musicologists, women did become involved in music education "to such a degree that women dominated [this field] during the later half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century."[7]
According to Jessica Duchen, a music writer for London's The Independent, women musicians in classical music are "too often judged for their appearances, rather than their talent" and they face pressure "to look sexy onstage and in photos."[8] Duchen states that while "[t]here are women musicians who refuse to play on their looks...the ones who do tend to be more materially successful."[8] According to the UK's Radio 3 editor, Edwina Wolstencroft, the music industry has long been open to having women in performance or entertainment roles, but women are much less likely to have positions of authority, such as being the conductor of an orchestra,[9] a profession which has been called "one of the last glass ceilings in the music industry."[10]
In popular music, while there are many women singers recording songs, there are very few women behind the audio console acting as music producers, the individuals who direct and manage the recording process.[11] One of the most recorded artists is a woman, Asha Bhosle, an Indian singer who is best known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema.[12]
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