How women shaped guitar history

And why this legacy is important

Okay, hear this argument out before you jump on Reddit and have a cry about feminism ruining everything in your entire life. What if the guitar has always been a woman’s instrument and men appropriated it?

Quick history recap: guitar was considered a bit of a joke instrument that no self-respecting male professional musician would touch. Some fantastically sexist German philologist (a clearly made up job) and composer even went as far to write an actual list of instruments that women should not play because women are inferior and omg what an absolute jerk. He. Wrote. A. List. Anyway, you can read this paper by Erik Stenstadvold if you have access to academic journals and want to feel furious about the impact of gendering of instruments.

In the 1700s when ladies inevitably performed private concerts of their diss tracks about what utter garbage it was that they couldn’t play a “real” instrument like the cello (lolz), these bourgeoisie amateurs had no idea they would set the scene for guitar glory later.

A definitely real photo of a female guitar player in 1742, colourised. Photo by Sarah E Howson.

Yeah, cool but how is guitar a women’s instrument?

For some reason (it’s called the patriarchy- look it up and weep) a lot of female input into society has been lost, ignored, or simply stolen. What we are starting to realise now, is that women shaped the sound of guitar today. Women like Mary Cotton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and maybe just have a read of this amazing list that Rolling Stone compiled because there are so many, and this article has a really tight deadline. There’s no other way to say this other than women have majorly influenced the evolution of guitar through style, genre, innovation, and straight up badass swagger. And just like has been done to black artists, women’s innovation in music was claimed by white men on lucrative recording contracts.

“Men do rock music better”

Yeah nah, that’s not true and Nancy Wilson from Heart probably has a lot to say about that tbh. Check out her about page on her website to see a bunch of film stuff she barely gets credited for due to owning a vagina. The main reason for this whole “oh whoopsie forgot a woman did that”, is that women have never really been respected in music, and it was especially obvious in the guitar industry until recently, as this Guitar.com article points out.

In 2018, Fender commissioned a report that proved women were taking up guitar as a hobby in way larger numbers than anyone realised, meaning the subsequent marketing around guitar has become all-inclusive. A modern miracle!

Some number crunching goodness from the 2018 Fender report.

In conclusion, circling back to the 1700s to see our bourgeois sisters singing about Claude’s really small (editors note: word removed) proves that guitar is the instrument that women continue to shape. Social media is currently awash with fantastic female guitarists taking up space they deserve. And the rhetoric of telling women someone else obviously played their guitar parts is the sole dominion of a few sad souls in the dark corners of the internet.

Without women playing an instrument that most people of the time ridiculed, it would probably have never survived long enough to evolve into the absolute sonic weapon it is today. “You’re good at guitar for a girl.” Yes Peter, thank you. However, to get as good as a girl you may wish to practise- we had a head start while you lot were playing your harpsichords.

Can you believe some dorks in the olden days though the guitar was an inferior instrument? Photo by Sarah E Howson.

History lesson over, class dismissed.

Check out some of these additional links that helped form the basis of this article.

JSTOR daily: At first the guitar was a women's instrument

Louder Sound: 50 women who changed rock'n'roll forever

If you want a timeline of influential female rockers, Berklee College gotchu fam.

Wanna vent about how feminism is ruining guitar? Comment below with your fragile feelings and anything else you want to say. You can also troll our socials via the links.