Women In Prog?

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Why aren’t there more women in prog?
I’ve asked myself this question repeatedly ever since I became aware that what I played was called “progressive rock.” It would be really easy to write it off as genre-specific sexism and leave it at that, but I’m not comfortable leaving pat definitions unexamined. If I accept that definition then I end up asking myself “Why am I such an anomaly?”
If I look at other female musicians I know, they fall into one of two categories; Highly trained classical musicians from an upper-middle class background, or folk singers who are frequently marginally skilled, musically speaking, usually from a lower-middle class or working class background.  This would seem to imply that the more leisure time one has, the more time one can devote to practice and honing musical skills. While I think that is part of it, I also think that the age one starts playing can affect one’s musicianship and style.
Now, a bit about my background; I started playing around the age of 13, on a junk guitar that I received as a gift from my Aunt Marge, bless her besotted heart. I have a theory that if my home and school situation were different none of this might have ever happened, and I’d be one of your late-blooming lesbian folk singers strumming an Ovation and caterwauling about the emotional torment of my latest failed relationship.
But I was from a dirt-poor family, which had serious alcohol problems. Since there were no relatives who lived within walking distance where I could escape to, my only recourse was to lock myself in my room after school and play. I had friends nearby, but the first rule of growing up in an alcoholic family is Appear Normal. Had I constantly imposed on my friends it would have eventually become obvious there were problems at home. It didn’t help that I was flat-chested, pimply-faced and unattractive. After each day of social invisibility at school I would arrive home to a drunken family fight, lock myself in my room and pour all my pent up hurt and frustration into learning chords from the Roy Clark Guitar Songbook and trying to apply them to the stock of Creedence Clearwater Revival albums I’d pilfered from my brother.
Then one day my brother came to visit. He plays guitar too, but he’s a blues player. Up to this time (about the age of 15) I had no idea there was more interesting music out there. The radio was hardly a revelation, playing the disco hits of the day. My brother had brought some Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, and Cream albums for me to listen to. I was amazed that a guitar could make those sounds; I threw myself into learning them to the point of missing school. Suddenly I was ordered to school counselors, who were alarmed at my “lack of normal social development.” I just didn’t find boys to be all that interesting, and my friends who constantly talked of nothing but boys became a bore too. I didn’t dare talk about sex or sexuality…this was the late 70s in a semi-rural Michigan town. I felt a deep sense of isolation at not being “normal.” This sense of alienation became a motivation to play more. I found myself falling asleep, guitar in hand, late at night, to be awakened by the building feedback. I’d also started drinking; it seemed the thing to do, with no other familial yardstick for comparison.     
One day a drinking friend turned me on to Frank Zappa, and I discovered the world of progressive rock. Ever since, it seems,  people have given me grief for playing and writing it. Male musicians I’ve jammed with have actually said things like “you play pretty good for a woman” and my female friends tell me I should “play womyn’s music” which I actually did try to do for a while till I was bored to tears.
It seems in my case a unique combination of social alienation; alcoholic household, poverty and a chance listening to Frank Zappa gave me the keys to progressive rock. Had I come from a better socio-economic background I would have probably taken up classical piano or violin. Sometimes I regret the time I spent playing, when I probably should have been out doing other things with my friends, but at the same time it probably saved my sanity. 