Break It Down: Women Musicians By The Numbers

Each week we produce a piece, for the web or the radio, drawing from a questionnaire NPR Music has been circulating among women musicians since March. This week we wanted to give you a statistical snapshot of the over 700 responses from women who have sent us their stories. And we've got charts!

You can read every single response here, but the some of the highlights include the reasons they chose their instruments, their role models (for better or worse), their occupations (musical or not), and a comparison of where musicians come from to where they live now:

Respondents to our questions mentioned role models when we asked several different questions — from advice for up-and-comers, to the different experiences men and women have in the business. Some were presented as good role models, some the opposite.

We asked musicians to describe their gear, but we also asked them how they chose their instrument. Many of the women play multiple instruments, and sing. A surprising (or not) number said their instrument "chose them," though most said they'd picked up the instrument as a child because of their families.

In response to almost every question, musicians told us stories about the sound guy (or girl), usually as an example of treatment they receive just for being women. Lily Chapin, who plays with The Chapin Sisters, says, "Soundchecks are always interesting. Especially when it's just us girls up there. The sound guys often don't take us seriously, until they know us, and they can be patronizing, like, 'This is a monitor — that's where the sound will come out.' It's crazy. But then after the show they're like, 'Wow, you guys are really good. Can I buy your CD?'"

We asked if music is their fulltime job. 63% said it is, 37% said it's not. Here is the breakdown of the work musicians said they did in addition to music:

This isn't close to the end of the data we've got at our fingertips — if there's anything else you want to hear about, tell us.

We're also making all of the information submitted to us available to anyone researching women musicians (or anything related), so if you're interested in access, write us at heyladies@npr.org.