Musical performance, like all aspects of culture, is profoundly influenced by issues of sexuality and gender-related behaviours. This volume offers an introduction to the field of women, music and culture, examining the implications of gender upon music performance. The presentation focuses on women from many different countries, societies and historical periods, from the professional, urban musician to the village preserver of traditional music and culture, from the young woman of the nineteenth-century hymnody tradition of the United States to the female tayu or chanter in the male-dominated Gidayu narrative tradition of Japan.