Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark, and Women in Country Music


In 2025 (and beyond if necessary), Saving Country Music is attempting to delve deep into the issue of why women are so under-represented in the country music genre, and trying to take that discussion beyond the simple “sexism” claims to really think outside the box about some of the systemic reasons so few women find success in the industry, and how to address these issues for good.

One of the things you commonly hear from both the people advocating for women in country music, and from critics of the concern that claim that country fans just don’t want to listen to women, is that the country genre is simply incapable of launching successful careers for women.

But this is patently and historically untrue. Though women have rarely if ever been represented in country music in a 50/50 share with men, even during the commercial peak of the “Class of ’89” that saw Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, and Clint Black dominating the genre, women like Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tanya Tucker, and more were still minting #1 singles on a regular basis, and putting together successful careers.

In much more recent history, country music also proved that it could support a woman all the way to the very top of popular music. That woman is currently one of the most recognized celebrities in all of the world, and country music very much helped to get her there. Her name is of course Taylor Swift.

Granted, the music of Taylor Swift was also more distinctly pop than most of what we’d heard in country music before, and this is not an unimportant aspect to her initial success. Some of Swift’s success was built from crossover fans as opposed to country ones. But listening back to some of Taylor’s early albums and singles such as “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops On My Guitar” with mandolin, steel guitar, and other country sounds, they comes across as way more country than much of the pop country of today.

Though it might feel like an eternity ago at this point, Taylor Swift was the 2009 and 2011 CMA Entertainer of the Year, along with being far and away the most popular performer in country music at the time. She was the Morgan Wallen of her time.

Taylor Swift left the country genre officially with her 2014 album 1989, after Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta introduced Taylor to pop producer Max Martin, who then enticed Swift to the pop side of popular music. But when Taylor Swift left country, it wasn’t a bitter divorce. She plopped $4 million on the desk of the Country Music Hall of Fame on her way out of Nashville, and told her fans she wanted to be honest about her music and what it was. Many country fans who previously begrudged her music respected this honesty. Other pop performers in country should take Taylor’s inspiration, and do the same thing.

The fact that the country music industry supported Taylor Swift so demonstrably and she was able to find top-tier success proves it’s possible for a woman to find her way in the industry. George Strait, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney and more took Swift on tour as an opener as a young, upstart teenager, and the CMAs and ACMs showered her with awards.

But it’s also the fact that Taylor Swift left country, and the genre was left with little to no return on its investment that has left such a gaping hole for a top-tier woman in country. Taylor Swift was supposed to have one of those decades-long careers in country. Then all of a sudden she was gone.

Ever since 2014, representation for women in country has been at a historical low. It’s not just Swift leaving, but Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, and other women within the country industry moving away from the genre that has made it where so few women can be listed among popular country’s ranks. This is also one of the reasons that investing in women who will stick around in country such as Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Carly Pearce feels like a more sure-footed investment moving forward.

We all know how it worked out for Taylor Swift leaving country. She’s now a billionaire, and one of the biggest celebrities in the entire world. Though Taylor Swift deserves the lion’s share of the credit, country music shares in that success as Swift’s launching pad, just like the genre was a launching pad for Linda Ronstadt, Shania Twain, and other massive stars over the years.

Last Saturday (1-18) when Taylor Swift was seen in a sky box at the Kansas City Chiefs football game with new WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, it felt like the colliding of two worlds. Similar to how you can point out Taylor Swift’s success in country to disprove the idea women can’t make it in the genre—and perhaps inspire other women that yes, there is a path forward—the same goes for Caitlin Clark and the WNBA.

Before Caitlin Clark, the WNBA was the perpetual butt of jokes, and a laughing stock of the sports world. As ESPN and others attempted to guilt people into watching and caring, there just wasn’t much interest in the sport in the population overall. People even became resentful how the WNBA was being shoved down their throats, not dissimilar to how some country fans feel about the whole “women in country” issue.

But Caitlin Clark proves how one superstar can change all of that. In 2024, games featuring Caitlin Clark tripled in viewership. Wherever Caitlin Clark played, game attendance in arenas was up 88%. In the sports world, they call it “Caitlinmania,”—a call back to the music world and Beatlemania. Where before it looked like the WNBA would be a perpetual charity case as opposed to a commercially-viable league, things started to look up.

A recent report claimed that the WNBA still lost some $40 million in 2024, but that was better than the $50 million they were projected to lose before Caitlinmania. Meanwhile, the surging interest is expected to help the WNBA expand their contracted 40-game season (the NBA plays 82 games), creating more revenue opportunities to finally make the league solvent.

Sure, part of both the Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark phenomenon boils down to attractive White women who are easy to sell to the public. But it seems there is a lesson, and perhaps wisdom and inspiration to be gleaned from both of their stories when considering the uphill battle women must climb in the country genre.

Neither Taylor Swift nor Caitlin Clark spent much time complaining about the challenges they faced as women in their respective disciplines. They simply put their heads down, worked harder than others, used the adversity they faced as inspiration, and if nothing else, proved it was possible to not just succeed, but excel, and in environments that present unique challenges to women.

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