The main goal of this dissertation is to examine the role, status, occupation of, and attitudes towards women in Irish traditional music. Although scholarship has developed in the area of gender and Irish traditional music, this dissertation pays particular attention to the experiences of women in the commercial Irish traditional music industry focusing on aspects such as image, performance, reception, perception, sexualisation, and feminism. Identifying periods of increased positive change and regression in both society and scene, the dissertation also aims to investigate how behaviours and attitudes towards women in Irish society have impacted women in Irish traditional music. The ethnographic fieldwork focuses on the experiences of women in Irish traditional music from c1980–2022. This includes in-depth interviews with industry professionals, case studies on well-known bands and commercial Irish dance shows, and a quantitative and qualitative survey with practitioners on the impact of parenthood on music industry participation. The analysis of this data incorporates scholarship from feminist theory and illustrates the impact of expectations and prejudices on women and other marginalised practitioners in the Irish traditional music and dance scene, and the commercial Irish traditional music industry. Through engaging with and being shaped by lived experiences of the scene, the dissertation informs historical and current understandings of the experience of women in Irish traditional music. In identifying enabling characteristics of prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and assault, the findings thereby act as a motivation to inspire change in both the men-dominated commercial Irish traditional music industry and wider Irish traditional music scene.