Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be

Award-winning Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss reveals the inside story of country music through the lens of rising stars Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kacey Mugraves--their battles against misogyny in the industry, their obstacles, their triumphs, and how their paths have intersected along the way.

It was only two decades ago, but, for the women of country music, 1999 seems like an entirely different universe. With Shania Twain, country's biggest award winner and star, and the Dixie Chicks topping every chart, country music was a woman's world, and so was country radio and Nashville's Music Row. Cut to 2021, when women are only played on country radio 16% of the time, on a good day, and when only men have won Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Awards for a decade. To a world where artists like Kacey Musgraves sell out arenas but barely score a single second of airplay. But also to a world where these women are infinitely bigger live draws than most male counterparts, having massive pop crossover hits like Maren Morris's "The Middle," winning armfuls of Grammys, and taking complete control of their own careers, on their own terms.

Where Have All the Cowgirls Gone? is Marissa R. Moss's story of how in the past two decades, country's women fought back against systems designed to keep them down: how women like Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Brandi Carlile, Miranda Lambert, and more have reinvented the rules to find their place in an industry stacked against them, how they've ruled the century when it comes to artistic output--and about how women can and do belong in country music, even if their voices aren't being heard as loudly.

Includes Photographs