Bee, in Britain women weren't excluded from pubs, but they were often restricted: typically a pub would have a "public bar" where respectable women weren't expected and a "lounge bar" where they were, though not usually alone. The distinction fizzled out slowly over the 1960's/70s, varying from region to region and pub to pub.

I guess that women who sang did so more in the home than out of it, which is where they spent much more of their lives anyway.

Anahata