♪ Set me free ♪ - [Narrator] Despite house music's origin as a place of acceptance, there was one group that found itself on the outside looking in.

- I am DJ Celeste Alexander, and I am one of Chicago's first female house music DJs.

- As far as women go in house music, you know, it was few and far between in the beginning.

- [Narrator] Some men in the industry believed that DJ skills were too complicated for women to master.

- It was the craft of learning how to play the music that drew me in before the music actually really, really did.

- [Narrator] In addition to technical proficiency, women brought an awareness of how the music moves the listeners, how it makes them feel.

- It's about sort of freeing yourself to be present with a movement.

It's about a harmony and allowing yourself to be swept up in it, not resisting it, you know, sort of going with this flow.

- [Narrator] Being told that they couldn't was all some of the women needed for motivation.

Not only could they, but they would.

DJ and Grammy nominated producer, Steve Hurley, was one of the first to encourage women to take on house music.

- All Steve talked about was music, mixing.

He told me it was the process of blending two records together simultaneously with two turntables and a mixer.

And he told me there are girls that can do it, but there was some type of belief amongst the males that did it that women did not have the proper coordination to learn how to mix music.

- We have way better eye hand coordination, so I don't know what the problem is.

A lot of men just felt like women couldn't DJ and every time you would show up, you had to prove it over and over again.

I'm not sure why it's so hard to conceptualize a woman blending two songs together.

- [Narrator] However, audiences did not immediately accept them.

- My very first paid DJ gig, I got booed.

(crowd booing) I got booed right off the DJ booth.

I didn't get two records in and it was basically because I was a girl.

So I had to spend a lot of time balancing how to get in, how to fit in, how to be accepted, and still learning at the same time.

- Yeah, I was once told by a friend that, "I love the way you DJ because you play like a man.

And when I'm trying to sell you to other people, that's what does it."

"When I say, 'Well, she plays like a guy.'"

We argue about this all the time because I'm like, "I don't think that's a compliment.

I know what you're trying to say, but it's a little sexist."

Maybe more than a little.

- [Narrator] But the women remained committed, even resorting to unisex dressing to cloak their identities.

- I didn't even dress like a female.

I wore overalls or thick sweatshirts and baseball caps and I wouldn't take the hat off or reveal that I was a female until after I had played a few songs and gotten the crowd's attention by the music.

Then I would reveal my gender.

- Men also sort of control things.

So they're the club owners, they're the people who are booking you, so you have to sort of appease them and so you have to play in a way that men find that acceptable.

- [Narrator] The clubs could sometimes be dangerous for the women who worked there.

- During a gig during the time that I was learning how to DJ, I was sexually assaulted.

I'm talking about in the '80s.

I mean, we didn't have all of the laws that are put in place that protect us in the workplace.

- I think that women at the helm in much more powerful positions of authority behind the music, behind production, behind venues, well this is so important.

That's what's gonna ultimately pave the way for more women entering the field and being successful.

- [Narrator] A sisterhood of young DJs has emerged with a new attitude, mad skills, and fierce determination.

- At some point, you just have to take that power back yourself.

I mean, people are always gonna be misogynistic.

I can count on my hand how many women DJs, like, in this generation that are really being pushed as much as male DJs.

And it's not a talent discrepancy thing.

The common denominator is them being a different gender.

- I'd like to see women on just as many lineups as men.

Girls bang, girls bang really hard.