Research Subject Guides: Music: Women, Gender & Music

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Gender, branding, and the modern music industry : the social construction of female popular music stars by Lieb, Kristin
Publication Date: 2013
The Mahalia Jackson Reader
ISBN: 9780190461669
Publication Date: 2020
Seeks to paint a full and vivid picture of one of the most resonant musical figures and gospel singers of the twentieth century.
Performing Racial Uplift by Juanita Karpf
ISBN: 9781496836724
Publication Date: 2022-01-04
Juanita Karpf rediscovers the career of Black activist E. Azalia Hackley (1867-1922), a concert artist, nationally famous music teacher, and charismatic lecturer.
Women making music : the western art tradition, 1150-1950 by Bowers, Jane M. ; Tick, Judith
Publication Date: 1985

The caged bird : the life and music of Florence B. Price Documentary about African American composer Florence B. Price, born in 1887 in LIttle Rock, Arkansas. She became the first African-American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra when the Chicago Symphony premiered her Symphony at the 1933 World's Fair.
Dreamworlds 3 : desire, sex & power in music video This film examines the stories contemporary music videos tell about girls and women, and by extension boys and men, providing a meticulous analysis of how these narratives reflect and shape individual and cultural attitudes toward femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and race.
Prelude to finale : three women arranger/conductors Documentary by feminist and filmmaker and broadcaster Judith Laird about 3 women conductors/arrangers at the World Steel Band Festival 1988.
Wild women don't have the blues: the women, the music, the legacy. The story of Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, and other pioneering blues women from early in the century.
Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over (documentary)

Transgender musicians
Basic introduction to American trans musicians, with a short list of resources. (Sage Encyclopedia of Transgender Studies)
Oxford Handbook of Queer and Transgender Music Therapy
Research on uses of music therapy in the queer and transgender community, leadership, sources, and more.
Composer Diversity Database
Allows filtering by gender identity, ethnic characteristics, and musical genre.
Finding the Trans Voice: A Review of the Literature on Accommodating Transgender Singers
A summary of the literature from 2018 with links to additional sources. Contact me if you know of any updates to this information!

CreativeFolk Women's folk music resources.
International Alliance for Women in Music Includes information on membership, publications, opportunities, organizations, bibliographies, course syllabi, discographies, historical information on women composers, and future festivals.
Ladyslipper Music A label and organization dedicated to heightening awareness of women's achievements in music, as well as broadening the scope and availability of works by women writers, performers, and composers.
Music Theory Examples by Women This is a database of excerpts and complete musical compositions by women composers. The music is categorized by theoretical concept for use in music education.
The woman composer question: a bibliography Bibliography of key resources on women in music, produced by the Kapralova Society.
Women Composers Collection (Univ. of Michigan)
Scanned facsimiles of scores by19th and early 20th century women composers.

Women Composers by Martha F. Schleifer (Editor); Sylvia Glickman (Editor)
ISBN: 0783816138
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
An 8-volume set of scores and sheet music by women composers. Western focus.
Black women composers : a century of piano music (1893-1990) by Ring, Montague.
Publication Date: 1992
Art songs and spirituals by African-American women composers by Taylor, Vivian
Publication Date: 1995
Women composers collection
The University of Michigan has digitized their collection of scores and made it available through HathiTrust. This database includes primarily scores from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.