The purpose of this paper was to include the music of women
composers in the elementary music curriculum. Textbooks and
materials available often do not represent women well in roles
as composers, conductors, and instrumentalists. For this reason,
supplementary materials are necessary to include women’s works
in the curriculum. This project offered me an opportunity to
research and find music that provided my students with an answer
to their question, “Why aren’t there any women composers?” As I
began to research women composers, I found many reasons for
their often anonymous state throughout history. Understanding
these reasons helps us to understand why their contributions
have not been acknowledged. The influence of the church and its
exclusion of women from participation in church music, as well
as perception of women’s domestic roles and their inability to
create music with the same logic and critical thinking used by
men, are just a few. Before the twentieth century, women in the
middle class did not ha