ABSTRACT
The vast repertoire labeled “world music” holds tremendous potential for highlighting women’s musical activities. Despite an extensive scope of global music activity, however, women are seriously underrepresented in written reports and visual images that reach the public. For example, in a 2009 study of leading collegiate world music textbooks, almost 70 percent of the visual images were solo or group images of men.1 Written content and guided listening experiences reflected a similar gender imbalance, featuring all-male mariachi bands, West African drumming groups, and Indonesian gamelan orchestras. Ironically, many of these highlighted ensembles do traditionally include roles for women, particularly as dancers and singers. Still, women are largely missing from narratives, recordings, and photographs. Depictions of all-women ensembles also remain surprisingly rare, even though such ensembles are common. Even in the ranks of “star performers,” the focus is often on male instrumentalists.
