In medieval society “…despite their musical prowess and well-regarded entertaining aptitudes, women were
stigmatized because their behaviour was seen as breaking the stereotypes imposed on them by a male-dominated
culture. Scholars agree that since these entertainers did not appear to be under the control of a male figure
(both in or outside of the performance context) in principle, they were perceived as rejecting conventional
strictures that urged females to maintain established roles such as those of housewives or pious women.
Their pursuit of monetary remuneration — a feature that associated women with prostitutes — and their
physical presentation before a male audience) magnified the perception of irregular behaviour . The use of 
dancing, contortions, or any other type of lively or energetic movement of the body such as the playing of 
percussion instruments further worsened their respectability...” 

“Alleviators of Sadness and Tedium”: Constructing a Socially Acceptable Image for the Medieval Female Performer” mauricio molina, 2015

The double pipes were widespread in ancient representations of musicians. 8 archeological figurines carved in stone playing double pipes have been found in Ibiza, Spain.  6 of these figures are female. (source) 

In European medieval manuscripts
it can be hard to tell if a man or a
woman is being depicted. Two women taborers:

in the margins of a manuscript
concerning Amazons 1230-1294

1489 Frontino, Italy, alterpiece (detail)

Were there women pipe and tabor players at this time or
was this just part of the design to look dramatic and shocking.

“Wind instruments were frowned upon by early-modern conduct-book writers such as Baldassare Castiglione
(1478–1529)
‘because the boisterousness of them doth cover and take away that sweet mildness which setteth so forth evrie
deede that a woman doeth.’

Moreover, their distortion of their player’s face during the performance and their phallic shape turned them into unbecoming choices for proper ladies of the court, whose main concern was to look chaste and beautiful to make a profitable marriage…”

from: ‘My virgin cheeks puffed up’: Classical Mythology, Women and Wind Instruments During the Early Modern Period' by Laura Ventura Nieto

1570 part of a band Holland

A girl child modelled in France in 1760. The pipe is missing.

This is a curiosity (Wentworth Castle).
A 17th/18th century lady bare-breasted
and with her skirt wrapped
around to show off her shape.

The symbolism of the portrait is clear.
What does this say about the pipe and tabor?

1811 Gypsies in Paris

“…a troop of gypsies immediately engaged my attention…one of these females flourished a tambarine,
and gingled the bells with inconceivable vivacity, while another sounded the pipe and tabour…”

‘A Winter in Paris; or, Memoirs of Madame de C****’

“… the German author of a canonical music history textbook declared that
“All creative work is well-known as being the exclusive work of men…”

 Emil Naumann,The History of Music , 2 vols., trans. F. Praeger (1882-86), 2: 1267
quoted in 'An All Male Affair' Revisited: Historical Women and the Early Music Marketplace, c1973-2015’
Brighton UK Early Music Festival. 17th October 2015

"Mrs Hill playing the Morris pipe and tabor"
March 1927

Oxford Journal Illustrated

In the 1929/1930's Joan Sharp (1898-1968) was playing pipe and tabor for morris and country dancing in England and on tour to the USA and Canada.

Joan Sharp playing Ladies' Pleasure / Lumps of Plum Pudding here and Fool's Jig / None So Pretty here (1947)

Joan Sharp and Douglas Kennedy

Some morris dancers were completely against women as dancers, managers and musicians until early 21st century.
In April 1934, one dancer of the East Surrey Morris wrote a letter in which his criticism of the intervention of women
in morris dancing was unequivocal: "As regards men’s morris, my feeling is that it should be entirely man-managed.
Women should have nothing to do with its management at all." (source)

Despite attitudes such as these some women contributed fully to the morris movement. In 1948 Miss Welsford played the pipe and tabor in England: In 1950: Bucks Herald - Friday 17 March 1950
source	Winsome Bartlett in 1968 helped to set up, teach and play the pipe and tabor for Dartington Morris Men. She also made pipes and tabors, sang and appeared on the radio playing the pipe and tabor (1953).	1970 Winsome Bartlett playing for Dartington Morris Men

A Miss Barnett was praised by the Oxford University Morris Men:
" Our inspiration was Miss Barnett (Mrs Heffer) who was the Oxford teacher at that time and one of the few women
really capable of teaching Morris.... the more observant and honest men admitted that on points of a pure technique
practised women had an annoying habit of doing better than men."

Woman playing galoubet-tambourine

Provence; statuettes based on two female taborers. These are for sale alongside statuettes of men.

 "I am aware that it is something that had never been done before, but women had never voted before, in the end it was achieved and now we see it as something normal and necessary in today's society like ours" 
(source)

 In Spain Pilar Marcos said in 2018: “Right now there are girls playing, they are still few, but when I started there was no one... Today, there are many women, in different spheres of culture, society and work, who continue to suffer discrimination for the mere fact of being a woman.
'they told me what did I do playing the drum when that had always been for men ... they criticized me and did not throw me out, because I left...they said  it was 'a man's thing'... people were very struck by the fact that I was a woman, always out of respect. I only had to suffer that 'contempt' when I started ... because ... in women it is fatal when the drum is played, that cannot be done!

José Ramón Cid Cebrián was interviewed in Spain in 2015:
Q Now the girls play the drum? Before, women didn't play castanets either, dancers played them.
A Now yes, not before, there is some reference to a female drummer, but it was not traditional. There are things that must be maintained and respected, and others not. Why can't there be a female drummer?

1960s Parade Basque Country

This woman has the biggest drum, Spain

2021 Japan

Margo Fontijne plays the pipe and tabor in the early music group Ensemble Corona, based in Holland.