History: All-female Bands

In the Jazz Age of the 1920s, "all-girl" bands such as "Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators" were briefly popular. (In 1925, Lee DeForest filmed Lewis and her band in his short-lived Phonofilm process, in a film now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.) Blanche Calloway, sister of Cab Calloway, led a male band, Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys, from 1932 to 1939, and Ina Ray Hutton led an all-girl band, the Mellodears, from 1934 to 1939. Author and professor Sherrie Tucker published a book detailing the times and trials of All-Girl Swing bands of the 1940s, titled "Swing Shift", in 2000. (Duke University Press)
Groups composed solely of women began to flourish with the advent of rock and roll. Among the earliest all-female rock bands to be signed to a record label were Goldie & the Gingerbreads, to Atlantic Records in 1964, The Feminine Complex to Athena Records in 1968 and Fanny in 1969 when Mo Ostin signed them to Warner Bros. Records. There were also others, such as the Ace of Cups (1967) and the Shaggs (1968).
Roger Ebert, in his audio commentary for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) claims credit for inspiring all-female rock bands with fictional band Carrie Nations created for the film, stating that such bands were quite rare at the time, but started to spring up in the film's wake.