Women in Music at the Library for the Performing Arts & Beyond: Other Resources

A number of libraries offer digitized resources related to the history of women in music. Below are some of our favorites.

Ladyslipper, Inc. Retail Catalogs: This digital collection offered by the Sallie Bingham Center at Duke University includes catalogs and other publications of Ladyslipper, Inc., a North Carolina-based organization "working to expand the scope and availability of musical and literary recordings by women."

Women Composers Collection: Hosted by HathiTrust, this digital collection includes over 3,000 scores of works by women composers from the University of Michigan's collections, from the years 1750 through 1999. Scores from 1925 and before are available in full. Scores from after 1926 are restricted to search-only.

Women in Sheet Music: Created by the University of California at Los Angeles, this research guide only contains a handful of digitized items. However, it offers a number of extremely thorough lists of sheet music titles pertaining to different themes of women's history.

Women of Rock Oral History Project: Created as an initiative of Smith College, the site includes 46 long-form oral history video recordings of women in rock music and related genres.

Women Who Rock: The Women Who Rock Coalition, based at the University of Washington, hosts conferences and organizes a number of initiatives to document women's roles in various music scenes. This digital collection includes oral history interviews, photos, and a handful of films documenting the events and projects of Women Who Rock.

Women in Music This site gathers together images of artifacts from across the Smithsonian libraries that were created by women musicians, or that document their work.

Alliance for Women Film Composers: hosts events and gatherings and maintains a directory of women film composers.

Boulanger Initiative:  A database that lists Women and Gender-Marginalized Composers, as of 14th March 2023 it includes over 8,000 historical works by more than 1,200 nonliving women composers, it is free and aims to encourage ensembles to diversify their classical music programming and celebrate the groundbreaking contributions of underrepresented composers by taking advantage of this amazing resource. 

Earhart: highlights femme, trans, and gender non-conforming musicians with feature stories, playlists, and an artists directory.

Femme House: offers support and networking for womxn, trans, and gender non-conforming individuals in the music industry. Offers fee-based courses related to producing, mixing, and engineering. Also curates playlists of womxn-produced music.

Gender Amplified: fosters networking among women, trans, and gender non-conforming artists, produces "What Are You Working On" YouTube series and "Behind the Beat" podcast.

Girls Make Beats: geared towards girls aged 5-17, offers training and mentoring in music production, DJing, and audio engineering.

Institute For Musical Arts (I.M.A.): "Band Camp for Girls" plus so much more. Summer in-residence camps (when allowed, virtual when not) for pre-teen through High School, the girls get lessons in individual instruments, music theory, & audio production in the fully functional professional recording studio. 

International Alliance for Women in Music: hosts a composition competition, conferences, and concerts. Publishes a journal and leads the Radio Requests campaign to encourage radio stations to program works by women composers.

Kassia Database: The Women's Art Song Database: indexes art songs composed by women, intended as a  resource for singers and scholars.

Keychange: strives to increase gender minorities in music industry, with a manifesto, a pledge, and a talent development program. Based in based in Germany, UK, and Switzerland, but serves artists beyond those countries.

Many Many Women index: lists women worldwide working in experimental music and sound art.

Music Production for Women: offers a safe, welcoming community for female-identifying individuals to learn the basics of music production. It hosts a course in "Introduction to Music Production," a weekly podcast, and a Facebook group.

National Association of Black Female Executives in Music & Entertainment, Inc.®: provides opportunities for networking with Black female professionals in the music industry and other related fields across the world. Offers courses and scholarships.

She Is the Music: supports women  songwriters, engineers, producers, and other musical artists by maintaining a database of women in music and a discussion board, as well as hosting songwriting camps and a course in "Music Business Basics."

She Knows Tech: provides training programs, mentoring, concerts, and masterclasses on sound engineering, music production, and other "tech" aspects of the music industry and sound arts. Also hosts a summer "bootcamp" and a two-hour music production Zoom challenge.

SoundGirls.org: offers networking, education, and job placement for women, trans, and gender-nonconforming musicians. Of note are its courses in audio and music production, live sound camps, and "ask the experts" events.

The Women's International Music Network: provides networking for women in the music industry, offering events, a community forum, and news content focused on women performers.

Turn It Up: advocates for equitable representation of women and other groups traditionally sidelined in various aspects of the music industry. It inducts artists into its own gender-inclusive Hall of Fame, and also offers a "Femifesto" for enacting change in the music industry.

Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls (a member of the global Girls Rock Camp Alliance): provides year-round educational series for girls, women, and gender expansive individuals looking to learn instruments, music production, and songwriting in an empowering, inclusive environment.

#WomxnCrush Music: supports women, transgender, and gender nonbinary songwriters by fostering community, hosting events, and curating a playlist of womxn artists.

Women in Music: offers approximately two online networking or educational events per week that support women working in music, with a special focus on music industry careers. Has local chapters worldwide.

Women in Recorded Sound Facebook group: offers a means of networking and idea-sharing for women working in recorded sound-related fields, or with an interest in recorded sound. Note: this is a private group.

Women Make Music (a project of the PRS Foundation): offers grants to women, gender non-binary, and transgender musicians writing their own material.

Women's Audio Mission: serves girls, women, and gender-nonconforming musicians across the world, WAM offers regular online meetings and training sessions, as well as a job board and networking directory. It also hosts educational programs such as Girls on the Mic and WAM Core Training for Women.

Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy: supports women composers, conductors, and performers by issuing recordings featuring women's compositions and by awarding grants.

Women's Song Forum: online forum devoted to women’s voices in song, to the many songs by women, and to the many female musicians working in and with song, who have yet to be given the attention they deserve.

Created by Molly Murdock and Ben Parsell, the Music Theory Examples by Women website includes excerpts of scores by women composers, to be used in the music theory classroom. Excerpts are searchable by composer, as well as by concept. Many entries also contain links to recordings. The site also includes a tab for pre-20th century women music theorists.