"Bluegrass is often maligned either as one of the whitest American music genres, or one of the most male-dominated. Certainly, the main foundational figures of bluegrass were all men—Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, Ralph Stanley. But women have been a part of bluegrass from the beginning, first with Sally Ann Forrester on accordion in Bill Monroe’s first band, and later with pioneers like Louise Scruggs, Earl’s wife and a powerful businesswoman in the bluegrass music industry, or Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, a duo most often quoted as paving the way for women in bluegrass. Today, it’s not as hard to point to powerful women in bluegrass, from country star Alison Krauss (who has a new album coming this year), who got her start as a precocious bluegrass prodigy, to popular Americana artists like Sarah Jarosz or Sara Watkins, both of whom emerged in the bluegrass scene at young ages."