First of all, I’m aware that there are great female guitarists. Jennifer Batten comes to mind–she certainly held her own as a member of Jeff Beck’s group.
But, there simply isn’t a female equivalent of say, Jimi Hendrix. When I see lists of the “greatest” guitarists, women are rarely mentioned. (Rolling Stone did give Joni Mitchell and Joan Jett a nod in it’s top 100).
So, if you want, give a shout out to your favorite women six-stringers. But the question remains: why hasn’t a member of the fairer sex become a rock ‘n’ roll star based on her guitar virtuosity?
I’ll add Deborah Coleman, Rory Block, and Alice Stuart. Getting away from the blues, there’s also Nancy Wilson of Heart.
However, no woman gets the same sort of acclaim as someone like Eric Claption, B.B. King, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, etc.
In a way, the question is unfair – very few male guitarists reach the level of guitar legends. Even someone like Roy Buchanan, John Fahey, or Leo Kottke – considered to be some of the best guitarists ever – never became gods, mostly because they never had popular hits.
Also, the idea of a female guitarist for a band was unusual. Women in rock in the 60s usually were singers and rarely took up guitar. Those who did (I’m thinking of April Lawton of Ramatam, who was hyped as a potential guitar hero before Nancy Wilson came along) were looked upon more as an oddity, like that famous description of the woman preacher: “the amazing thing was that she was doing it at all.”
As RealityChuck alludes to, a large part of the difference is due to the disparity in the number of male and female guitarists. Pick enough guitarists of either gender and you’ll see talent on the bell curve, with both ends represented. We’ve done that with the male guitarists, but not with the female.
For what it’s worth, there was a “guitar god” movement in the 80s with very highly-technical guitar work (think Yngwie Malmsteen). Jennifer Batten’s solo work definitely qualifies her as a guitar goddess in that sense.
