Women in music describes the role of women as
composers,
songwriters,
instrumental performers,
singers,
conductors,
music scholars,
music educators,
music critics/
music journalists and other musical professions. As well, it describes music movements, events and genres related to women,
women's issues and
feminism. In the 2010s, while women comprise a significant proportion of
popular music and
classical music singers, and a significant proportion of songwriters (many of them being singer-songwriters), there are few women
record producers,
rock critics and rock instrumentalists. Although there have been a huge number of
women composers in classical music, from the Medieval period to the present day, women composers are significantly underrepresented in the
commonly performed classical music repertoire, music history textbooks and music encyclopedias; for example, in the
Concise Oxford History of Music,
Clara Schumann is one of the only female composers who is mentioned.