As of December 21st, 2020, there are 1,234 artists listed in this index.

Welcome to the Many Many Women index!

Many Many Women is managed by, Dana Reason. Reason is the vice president of the International Alliance of Women in Music (IAWM) and the coordinator of Contemporary Music and Research at Oregon State University.

Many Many Women was founded in the fall of 2015 by composer and curator, Steve Peters. It was subsequently handed off to musician and archivist, Megan Mitchell (Cruel Diagonals). Mitchell enjoyed a five year tenure as proprietor from December 2015 – December 2020.

The following represents the a note about inclusivity, which was added by Mitchell, as well as remarks from Peters that accompanied the site in its first iteration.

A Note About Inclusivity

The English language presents a barrier to expression for our transgender and non-binary friends. There is unfortunately (to my knowledge, at this time), no succinct, clean way of saying that this index is for any group of individuals who have been marginalized and oppressed by the patriarchal norms of our society. By choosing to use the term “women” to describe the members of this index, I understand that it reinforces the binary “other,” and may alienate individuals whose work has not been given proper attention due to their gender identity or perceived gender. Please know that artists whose work fall under the scope of this index are welcome here as long as they are not cis men. Thank you for your understanding and compassion around this topic, and feel free to reach out to extend the dialogue.

-Megan Mitchell (Cruel Diagonals), proprietor 2015-2020

Several years ago, a bright and talented pianist told me that she had gone through her entire Juilliard education having heard of only five female classical composers – three of whom were dead. I started making her a list, but it got a little out of hand.

The main focus of this index is on women making various kinds of experimental/avant garde music. Some of these artists may also work within more mainstream forms, but they are included here because of their other work that is more challenging.

This index does not include artists who work exclusively in more mainstream or accessible styles: pop, rock, singer-songwriters, straight ahead jazz, country, folk, R&B, hip-hop, EDM, DJs, Goth, New Age, etc. Nothing against those things, they’re just not what this project is about. Also, it does not not include groups/bands (too transient), performers who are strictly interpreters of music written by other people (too many), or artists without any substantial internet presence.

This site is organized within various general category pages to make it more useful for those seeking out artists doing certain kinds of work. At the top of each page you will find my working definition of that category and what it includes. Artists are listed alphabetically within each category and may appear in multiple categories depending on different aspects of their work. Each artist’s name is usually linked to a primary source, such as their own web site or SoundCloud/BandCamp site; if those don’t exist, it links to the best secondary source I can find about them – Wikipedia, record label, publisher, etc. When an artist is listed with two countries, the first is where they are originally from and the second is where they currently live (to the best of my knowledge). For artists who are deceased, their years of birth/death are shown.

Suggestions for new artists to add are welcome (see instructions in sidebar), but I prefer to hear directly from the artists themselves, rather than from fans. If there is an artist you’d like to see included, please send them the link to this site and have them contact me directly. This assures they are represented here in a way that aligns with their own wishes. Likewise, artists should contact me if you wish to be added or removed, or if you are already included and want to change something about how you are listed. Before suggesting artists, be sure to first use the SEARCH function in the sidebar to confirm they aren’t already here. Submissions of single links go up much faster; if you send me a page of links with every artist you can think of, it will get put off until much later. Submissions for artists who don’t meet the stylistic criteria outlined above will be ignored.

–Steve Peters, founder