Women composers

Explore professional associations and directories to learn about historic and contemporary women composers and musicians, and to discover the resources, programs, and networks that are available.

• Alliance for Women Film Composers
  • Supports the work of women film composers through advocacy and education
  • Includes a directory of women film composers
• Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC/AFCC) 
  • List of members and profiles with links to their professional sites
  • Archive of more than 120 years of materials: music, recordings, interviews, and correspondence
• The Boulanger Initiative
  • Promotes music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions
  • Hosts the Women and Gender-Marginalized Composers Repertoire Database
• Female:Pressure
  • International network of female, transgender and non-binary artists in the fields of electronic music from composers and DJs to researchers
  • Advanced search tool filters by location, genre, and profession
  • Links to artists’ webpages
• Girl Gang Music
  • Promotes female inclusion in all aspects of the music industry
  • Links to ally organizations, academic resources, studies, research on women in the music industry
• International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM)
  • Association dedicated to promoting the activities of women in music
  • Website contains several resources for research and to locate repertoire 
  • List of partner associations promoting women in music
• Maestra
  • Provides support, visibility, and community to the women and nonbinary people in the musical theater industry
  • Includes a directory of members
• Music by Black Composers
  • Living Composers Directory can be filtered by gender (80+ women composers) 
• Music in Africa
  • More than 29 000 members: bands/groups, composers, arrangers and songwriters, choirs, orchestras and ensembles, audio engineers, record labels, publishers
  • eMagazine of Women in African music (Northern Nigeria, Lesotho, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Benin, Gabon, Togo, Senegal, and other regions)
• Musicwoman
  • Jazzwomen Directory includes biographical information about current and past women in jazz
• Music Women
  • Germany
  • Profile database searchable with tags, federal state, and names
• National Association of Black Female Executives in Music & Entertainment (NABFEME)
  • Specializes in various fields and disciplines of music and entertainment
  • Resources, Blog, and Radio
• Native Women in the Arts 
  • Promoting the art, culture, community, and advancement of Indigenous peoples in Canada
• New York Women Composers, Inc. 
  • Includes music of current and historic members
• She Is the Music
  • Member Profile Database
  • Sort results by newest member, genres, musicians, songwriting
  • Statistics (2019): USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study on the music industry
• shesaidso
  • Global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry
  • Blog, Radio, Spotify Playlist
• Wikipedia
  • List of women composers by birth date
• Women in Music
  • UK
  • Blog
  • Includes a comprehensive Reading list and statistics on the number of women composers represented in concert programming (PROMS survey and programming survey)

• McGill users only
• Open access resource
• Free resource
• In-library use
• Catalogue record