Online Resources for Women’s History Month
March is Women’s History Month so I thought I would provide a bunch of terrific online resources, specifically focused on women in music, to help you celebrate this month with your students. I hope you find all of these resources useful!
PBS: Trailblazing Women in Music History You Should Know
Like anything else from PBS, this website is wonderful and contains LOTS of short videos that highlight the lives of several iconic women from ALL aspects of music, including Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Linda Ronstadt, Lea Salonga, MC Sha-Rock, Missy Elliott, Gloria Estefan, Celia Cruz and many, many more. Each icon has a short biography as well as a link to watch the documentary about their music life. If you are looking for a wide range of women to teach your students about, this is a GREAT place to start.
Smithsonian Music: Women in Music
This web offering from the Smithsonian Institute called Women in Music is a collection of 21 different stories about various women who have made an impact on the world of music. The stories include musical artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Mary Lou Williams, Ella Jenkins, Jenny Lind, Martha Redbone, Roseanne Cash, and Peggy Seeger. Each story includes images, biographical information, and there is even a link to a fantastic audio playlist from the Smithsonian Folkways Recording archives that features all of the various featured female musicians.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Revolutionary Women in Music
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be opening an exhibition in their Cleveland HQ on March 8th that celebrates the many amazing women in music. The exhibit will highlight the work of a number of groundbreaking, courageous and rebellious musicians, from the 1970s to today, who helped shape the music and culture of our modern music scene. Featured musicians include Patti Smith, Joan Jett, The Go-Gos and the Talking Heads.
Oxford Music Online - Women in Music Timeline
If you are looking for a Western Music History focused resource, there are few better than the Oxford Music Online Women in Music Timeline. This resource provides a detailed listing of the MANY women over the past 1,200 years who have contributed to Western Music History. Each entry on the timeline has a Read more… link where you can find related images for the composer, but you’ll need a Grove Music Online account to access most of the information. I like this timeline as a reference for your students to do their own research.
ClassicFM: 10 Women Who Changed the Classical Music World Forever
ClassicFM - a radio station that focuses on classical music in the UK - has assembled a fantastic free online resource that features the works of 10 female composers, including Hildegard of Bingen, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Amy Beach, Florence Price, Nadia Boulanger, and Marin Alsop. Each composer has links to audio and video files, as well as images and links to relevant resources. I love the variety and diversity of the women they selected and I am certain that your students will learn more about these important musical composers.
Playing for Change Foundation: Women in the History of Music
The Playing for Change Foundation has put together a collection of free online resources that highlight the achievements of a wide variety of women in contemporary music history, including Edith Piaf, Bjork, Adele, Esperanza Spalding, Janis Joplin, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, and many more. Each artists has a video available to play of one of their greatest musical hits. While not as in depth as other sites, the videos are great examples of each artists’ work.
NPR: 8 Women Who Invented Popular Music
National Public Radio has created a free online resource that highlights a group of 8 female artists who redefined popular music in America. The artists include Marian Anderson, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Celia Cruz among four others. Each musician has a profile page that includes multiple audio files - including some NPR programming - as well as images, articles, and more. I really like the list that NPR has curated here, as it includes some incredibly important musicians that may not be “top of mind” when you think about women in music - at least not for me.
I have featured the lesson plans from the TeachRock website in the past and it’s no surprise to me that the site does a great job of focusing a section of the site to Women’s History. TeachRock is a fantastic free resource for music teachers and the Women’s History page includes 8 lesson plans, complete with a detailed lesson plan, videos, images, articles, and activities that celebrate the musical lives of musical artists such as Janis Ian, Carole King, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, The Shirelles, and The Ronettes,. There are also thematic lesson plans based on our society and culture that related to women’s issues from equal rights, to other political flash points such as the recent #metoo movement. These lesson plans are geared more towards high school students, but they are really well done.
Spotify Playlist: Great Female Voices
The folks at Spotify are really good at creating playlists that include representative artists and examples from a wide variety of genres and topics. For Women’s History Month they have created quite a few playlists, and my favorite is the Great Female Voices playlist. This playlist includes 50 tracks from a wide variety of musical artists including Natalie Cole, Shania Twain, Whitney Houston, Shirley Bassey, Sade, Annie Lennox, Barbra Streisand, Marianne Faithful, and SO many more. This is the PERFECT playlist to showcase talented female singers.
I hope that you find some of these resources useful. Obviously there are MANY, MANY more but this list should get you started. If you know of a good resource for Women’s History Month, please drop a link and description in the comments.