women in music 8

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19 Feb 2024
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Music scholars and educators[edit]

Musicologists and music historians[edit]

Rosetta Reitz (1924–2008) w[185]
The vast majority of major musicologists and music historians have been men. Nevertheless, some women musicologists have reached the top ranks of the profession. Carolyn Abbate (born 1956) is an American musicologist who did her PhD at Princeton University. She has been described by the Harvard Gazette as "one of the world's most accomplished and admired music historians."[186]
Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated with new musicology who incorporates feminist music criticism in her work. McClary holds a PhD from Harvard University. One of her best known works is Feminine Endings (1991), which covers musical constructions of gender and sexuality, gendered aspects of traditional music theory, gendered sexuality in musical narrative, music as a gendered discourse and issues affecting women musicians. In the book, McClary suggests that the sonata form (used in symphonies and string quartets) may be a sexist or misogynistic procedure that constructs of gender and sexual identity. McClary's Conventional Wisdom (2000) argues that the traditional musicological assumption of the existence of "purely musical" elements, divorced from culture and meaning, the social and the body, is a conceit used to veil the social and political imperatives of the worldview that produces the classical canon most prized by supposedly objective musicologists.
Other women scholars include:

Ethnomusicologists[edit]

Frances Densmore (1867 – 1957) was an American anthropologist and ethnographer known for her studies of Native American music and culture.
Ethnomusicologists study the many musics around the world that emphasize their cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dimensions or contexts instead of or in addition to its isolated sound component or any particular repertoire. Ethnomusicology – a term coined by Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος (ethnos, 'nation') and μουσική (mousike, 'music') – is often described as the anthropology or ethnography of music. Initially, ethnomusicology was almost exclusively oriented toward non-Western music, but now includes the study of Western music from anthropological, sociological and intercultural perspectives.
Women have also made significant contributions in ethnomusicology, especially in the intersection of gender studies and ethnomusicology.[187] Ellen Koskoff, professor emerita at the Eastman School of Music, has done extensive work on gender in ethnomusicology.[188] Koskoff has also served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and hosted a radio show called "What in the World is Music?"[188]
In, "An Introduction to Women, Music, and Culture" (1987), Koskoff argues that music performed by women is "devalued" and in some cases, is even considered, "non-music," despite having "musical form".[187]: 15  Koskoff explains that the distinction that men occupy public spheres and women occupy private, domestic ones has, "creat[ed] not necessarily two separate and self-contained music cultures, but rather two differentiated yet complementary halves of culture.[187]: 1  She reasons that because "In most societies, a woman's identity is believed to be embedded in her sexuality," "one of the most common associations between women and music... links women's primary sexual identity and role with music performance".[187]: 6  Based on this association, Koskoff argues that "Four categories of music performance thus emerge in connection with inter-gender relations: (1) performance that confirms and maintains the established social/sexual arrangement; (2) performance that appears to maintain the established norms in order to protect other, more relevant values; (3) performance that protests, yet maintains, the order (often through symbolic behavior); and (4) performance that challenges and threatens established order".[187]: 10 
Deborah Wong, a professor at the University of California, Riverside,[189] is known for her focus on the music of Southeast Asia and Asian American music-making,[189] and has also studied taiko, or Japanese American drumming.[190]
Other women ethnomusicologists include:

Music educators[edit]

A music teacher leading a music ensemble in an elementary school in 1943
Main article: Women in music education
While music critics argued in the 1880s that "women lacked the innate creativity to compose good music" due to "biological predisposition",[8] later, it was accepted that women would have a role in music education, and they became involved in this field "to such a degree that women dominated music education during the latter half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century."[8] "Traditional accounts of the history of music education [in the US] have often neglected the contributions of women, because these texts have emphasized bands and the top leaders in hierarchical music organizations."[191] When looking beyond these bandleaders and top leaders, women had many music education roles in the "home, community, churches, public schools, and teacher-training institutions" and "as writers, patrons, and through their volunteer work in organizations."[191]
Despite the limitations imposed on women's roles in music education in the 19th century, women were accepted as kindergarten teachers, because this was deemed to be a "private sphere." Women also taught music privately, in girl's schools, Sunday schools, and they trained musicians in school music programs. By the turn of the 20th century, women began to be employed as music supervisors in elementary schools, teachers in normal schools and professors of music in universities. Women also became more active in professional organizations in music education, and women presented papers at conferences.
A woman, Frances Clarke (1860–1958) founded the Music Supervisors National Conference in 1907. While a small number of women served as president of the Music Supervisors National Conference (and the following renamed versions of the organization over the next century) in the early 20th century, there were only two female presidents between 1952 and 1992, which "[p]ossibly reflects discrimination." After 1990, however, leadership roles for women in the organization opened up. From 1990 to 2010, there were five female presidents of this organization.[192]: 171  Women music educators "outnumber men two-to-one" in teaching general music, choir, private lessons, and keyboard instruction.[192]: 177  More men tend to be hired as for band education, administration and jazz jobs, and more men work in colleges and universities.: 177  According to Dr. Sandra Wieland Howe, there is still a "glass ceiling" for women in music education careers, as there is "stigma" associated with women in leadership positions and "men outnumber women as administrators."[193]

Individuals[edit]

  • Julia Crane (1855–1923) was an American music educator who set up a school, the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York, which was the first school specifically for the training of public school music teachers.[194] She is among the most important figures in the history of American music education.[195] Crane was a student of Manuel García.[196] Crane was inducted into the Music Educators Hall of Fame in 1986.[197] As of 2015, the Crane School of Music is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam. It has 630 undergraduate and 30 graduate students and a faculty of 70 teachers and professional staff.
  • Cornelia Schröder-Auerbach [de] (1900–1997), musician, musicologist, pianist and organist, studied musicology in Breslau, Munich, Jena and Freiburg in Breisgau,[198] where she made her doctorate in musicology in 1928, her supervisor was Wilibald Gurlitt.[199] According to Texas State University professor Nico Schüler she was the first woman to graduate with a doctorate in musicology.[200]: 207  In 1930 she founded with Peter Harlan and her husband, the composer Hanning Schröder, the Harlan Trio for historically informed performances, path-breaking for this new genre,[200]: 209  based also on her research in clavichord music and compositions. With the Nazi takeover of the German government and its anti-Semitic discriminations the non-observant Protestant Schröder-Auerbach was banned in 1934 from publicly performing because her four grandparents had been Jewish.[200]: 212  From early 1944 on, under veiled so-called Aryan identity she restarted public music performances in Dargun as the church organist, choirmaster and music teacher,[200]: 212  after 1945 she continued this and also networked in the music chapter of the Mecklenburg state association of the Cultural Association of the GDR. In 1952 she joined the East German Academy of Arts in East Berlin, where she rebuilt the music archive, lost in 1945 with the destruction of the predecessor Prussian Academy of Arts. Since she lived in the American Sector of Berlin, the East Berlin Academy dismissed her in 1959. She also worked as author, lexicographer, music critic for the Berliner Börsen-Courier, radio stations and the Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Carolynn Lindeman (born 1940) graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Mozarteum Academy, San Francisco State University and Stanford University, where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts. She was a professor at San Francisco State University from 1973 to 2005. She was president of the Music Educators National Conference from 1996 to 1998. She edited the Strategies for Teaching series. She "[a]cknowledge[d gender] discrimination in academia."[192]: 172 
  • June Hinckley (1943–2007) graduated with a PhD from Florida State University. She was a music and fine arts supervisor in Brevard County in Florida. She wrote articles on music education. She was president of the Music Educators National Conference from 1998 to 2000.[192]: 172 
  • Lynn Brinckmeyer received her PhD from the University of Kansas. She was an associate professor and director of choral music education at Texas State University. She was president of the Music Educators National Conference from 2006 to 2008.[192]: 172 
  • Barbara Geer graduated from the University of North Carolina. She was a music consultant for a school system in North Carolina and she served as president of the Music Educators National Conference from 2008 to 2010.[192]: 172 
  • Grace Harriet Spofford (1887–1974) was an American music educator and administrator. She graduated from Smith College in 1909,[201] and later from the Peabody Conservatory of Music with degrees in piano (1913) and organ (1916).[202] Her first position in education was directly after her time at Smith, teaching piano at Heidelberg College (now Heidelberg University).[203] After attending Peabody, Spofford became a piano teacher and later an administrator there. From 1924 to 1931, she was the first dean of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. From 1935 to 1954, she was the director of the Henry Street Settlement's music school. She was largely responsible for commissioning The Second Hurricane, a play-opera by Aaron Copland and Edwin Denby.[204] After retirement, Spofford was involved with international music relations. Between 1954 and 1963, she served as chairman of music of the International Council of Women three times, during which the council sponsored the recording of orchestral works by five women composers: Mabel Wheeler Daniels, Miriam Gideon, Mary Howe, Julia Perry, and Louise Talma. In 1964 and 1966, Spofford was a delegate to the International Music Council. She received a 1968 honor from the National Federation of Music Clubs for "distinguished service to music in the field of human rights."[203]
  • Sharon Isbin, founding director of the guitar department at the Juilliard School and multiple Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist. In 1989, she created the Master of Music degree, Graduate Diploma and Artist Diploma for classical guitar at the Juilliard School, making history by becoming their first guitar faculty and the founding director of the guitar department; she added the Bachelor of Music degree and Undergraduate Diploma to the program in 2007, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in 2018.[205] Isbin has appeared as soloist with over 200 orchestras, and has commissioned more concertos than any other guitarist. She is the author of the Classical Guitar Answer Book and the director of the Guitar Department at the Aspen Music Festival.[205]

Conducting[edit]

JoAnn Faletta conducting Rite of SpringUS Army Captain Sharon Toulouse leading a military music ensemble in 2008
The majority of professional orchestra conductors are male; The Guardian called conducting "one of the last glass ceilings in the music industry."[11] A 2013 article stated that in France, out of 574 concerts only 17 were conducted by women and no women conducted at the National Opéra in Paris.[206] Bachtrack reported that, in a list of the world's 150 top conductors that year, only five were women.[207] A small number of female conductors have become top-ranked international conductors. In January 2005, Australian conductor Simone Young became the first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2008 Marin Alsop, a protégé of Leonard Bernstein, became the first woman to become the music director and principal conductor of a major US orchestra when she won the top job at the Baltimore Symphony.[208] There were "protests from a large swathe of the Baltimore Symphony when she was first named Music Director", but since that time, "plaudits [have] roll[ed] in."[208] In 2014, Alsop was the first woman conductor to lead the Last Night of the Proms concert–one of the most important classical music events in Britain–in its 118-year history.[208]
While there is a lack of women in professional orchestra, more recent studies show that the conducting profession itself lacks gender and racial diversity. There is a clear distinction between the low number of white women in the field compared to that of white men, but there is an even lower number of other racial and ethnic identities. The proportion of non-white musicians represented in the orchestra workforce – and of African American and Hispanic/Latino musicians in particular –remains extremely low.[209] The field of orchestra continues to remain predominantly white. Positions such as conductors, executives, and staff are dominated by white individuals, in particular, white males. In high level executive positions, it remains rare to see women or people of color. However, the gender gap narrowed in the early 1990s, with women musicians making up between 46% and 49% of the total musician pool in the two decades since.[209] The years 1980 to 2014 saw a four-fold increase in the proportion of diverse musicians on stage, driven largely by an increase in musicians from Asian / Pacific Islander backgrounds.[209] Over the years, more attention was brought to gender and racial disparity in the field. This awareness has caused positive impacts in the orchestrating field. Data about conductors from 2006 to 2016 reveals there is a gradual but steady trend towards greater racial and ethnic diversity, with the percentage of African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian / Pacific Islander, American Indian / Alaskan Native, and other non-white conductors increasing from 15.7% in 2006 to 21% in 2016.[209] Although there has been reconstruction of the whiteness and gender domination of males in the field, there is still work to be done.
Many women within the orchestrating profession experience forms of discrimination whether it be gender, racial, or both. Women, initially, were not encouraged to play professionally because it was deemed inappropriate by society. Women were further considered neither strong enough nor skilled enough to play instruments other than the piano, or to survive grueling rehearsal schedules.[210] Jeri Lynne Johnson was the first African-American woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Concordia conducting fellowship in 2005. She is the founder and music director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the first multi-ethnic professional orchestra in Philadelphia. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago, she is a conductor, composer and pianist. From 2001 to 2004, she was the assistant conductor of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.[211] She has led orchestras around the world including the Colorado Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony (UK), and the Weimar Staatskapelle (Germany). Alongside prominent woman conductors Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta, Ms. Johnson was heralded on the NBC The Today Show as one of the nation's leading female conductors.
According to the UK's Radio 3 editor, Edwina Wolstencroft, "The music world has been happy to have female performers ...for a long time...[;]But owning authority and power in public is another matter. That's where female conductors have had a hard time. Our society is more resistant to women being powerful in public than to women being entertaining."[10] The low percentage of women conductors is not because women do not study in music school; indeed, in 2009 and 2012 almost half of the recipients of conducting doctorates were women.[11]
The turn for women's rights in music began the feminist movement in America in 1848.[citation needed] The movement fueled all women to fight for equal rights in a plethora of fields such as voting, education, employment, and marriage. While the women's rights movement meant the start of including women into the orchestrating field, there would still be barriers they needed to overcome. Women of color, in particular, were faced with many stereotypes that challenged the worthiness of their work. In fact, black women's work in the field faced more scrutiny than that of their white counterparts. A classic example of this is seen in a study conducted for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, by Elliot Charles, in 1995. "Elliot examined whether race and gender influenced judgments of musical performances. Four trumpeters and four flutists were videotaped performing the same music excerpt. For each instrument, one white man, one white woman, one black man, and one black woman, served as models. To control the audio portion of the study, the researcher used two prerecorded performances, one for the trumpets and one for the flutes. This created the same audio for all trumpets and flute performances. College music majors rated each performance on a Likert-type scale. Results revealed black performers of each genders and instruments were rated significantly lower than white performers. The lowest ratings were given to black male and female trumpet players."[212]
This example demonstrates that gender discrimination was prevalent during this time, but racial discrimination must be accounted for as well.

Sexism, racism, and gender discrimination[edit]

Women conductors faced sexism, racism, and gender discrimination throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. "To break down this apparent employment barrier, women created their own opportunities by founding and organizing all-female orchestras"; one example is the Fadette Women's Orchestra in Boston founded in 1888 by conductor Caroline B. Nichols.[210] A number of other all-women orchestras were founded in the early decades of the 20th century, and women conductors led these groups. Writer Ronnie Wooten notes, "It is both interesting and ironic that something that is considered 'universal' has historically excluded women (with the exception of certain stereotypically defined roles) and more specifically women of color."[213] This comments on the fact that the underrepresentation of women in conducting is seen as a sexism issue, but is an issue of racism as well.
Women conductors continue to face sexism in the early decades of the 21st century. In the 2010s, several male conductors and musicians made sexist statements about women conductors. In 2013, "Vasily Petrenko, the principal conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, provoked outrage when he told a Norwegian newspaper that 'orchestras react better when they have a man in front of them."[214] He also stated that "when women have families, it becomes difficult to be as dedicated as is demanded in the business."[214] Bruno Mantovani, the director of the Paris Conservatoire, gave an interview in which he made sexist statements about women conductors. Mantovani raised the "problem of maternity" and he questioned the ability of women to withstand the physical challenges and stresses of the profession, which he claimed involve "conducting, taking a plane, taking another plane, conducting again."[9] Yuri Temirkanov, the music director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, made sexist statements about women conductors in a September 2013 interview, stating that "The essence of the conductor's profession is strength. The essence of a woman is weakness."[9] Finnish conductor Jorma Panula made sexist statements about women conductors in 2014; he stated that "women [conductors are not]... getting any better – only worse", which he called a "purely biological question."[215][216]

Conductors[edit]

Female conductors include:

Music critics[edit]

Popular music[edit]

American pop music critic Ann Powers (pictured in 2007)
According to Anwen Crawford, the "problem for women [popular music critics] is that our role in popular music was codified long ago", which means that "[b]ooks by living female rock critics (or jazz, hip-hop, and dance-music critics, for that matter) are scant." Crawford notes that the "most famous rock-music critics—Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Nick Kent—are all male."[2]
Sociomusicologist Simon Frith noted that pop and rock music "are closely associated with gender; that is, with conventions of male and female behaviour."[217] According to Holly Kruse, both popular music articles and academic articles about pop music are usually written from "masculine subject positions."[218] As well, there are relatively few women writing in music journalism: "By 1999, the number of female editors or senior writers at Rolling Stone hovered around...15%, [while] at Spin and Raygun, [it was] roughly 20%."[219] Criticism associated with gender was discussed in a 2014 Jezebel article about the struggles of women in music journalism, written by music critic Tracy Moore, previously an editor at the Nashville Scene.[220]
The American music critic Ann Powers, as a female critic and journalist for a popular, male-dominated industry, has written critiques the perceptions of sex, racial and social minorities in the music industry. She has also written about feminism.[221][222] In 2006 she accepted a position as chief pop-music critic at the Los Angeles Times, where she succeeded Robert Hilburn.[223] In 2005, Powers co-wrote the book Piece by Piece with musician Tori Amos, which discusses the role of women in the modern music industry, and features information about composing, touring, performance, and the realities of the music business.
Anwen Crawford, a writer for The Monthly, contributed to Jessica Hopper's book of essays and profiles entitled The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic.[224] Crawford's article "explores women's long struggle for visibility and recognition in the field of rock criticism, even though we've been helping to pioneer it from the start."[224] Crawford states that "[t]he record store, the guitar shop, and now social media: when it comes to popular music, these places become stages for the display of male prowess"; "[f]emale expertise, when it appears, is repeatedly dismissed as fraudulent. Every woman who has ever ventured an opinion on popular music could give you some variation [of this experience]... and becoming a recognized "expert" (a musician, a critic) will not save [women] from accusations of fakery."[224]
Popular music critics include:

Classical music[edit]

Marion Lignana Rosenberg (1961–2013) was a music critic, writer, translator, broadcaster and journalist. She wrote for many periodicals, including Salon.com, The New York Times and Playbill.
"The National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at Columbia... completed a large study of arts journalism in America [in 2005]. They found that 'the average classical music critic is a white, 52-year-old male with a graduate degree, but twenty-six percent of all critics writing are female.'"[225] However, William Osborne points out that this 26% figure includes all newspapers, including low-circulation regional papers. Osborne states that the "large US papers, which are the ones that influence public opinion, have virtually no women classical music critics."[225] The only female critics from major US papers are Anne Midgette (New York Times) and Wynne Delacoma (Chicago Sun-Times). Midgette was the "first woman to cover classical music in the entire history of the paper."[225] Susannah Clapp, a critic from The Guardian—a newspaper that has a female classical music critic—stated in May 2014 that she had only then realized "what a rarity" a female classical music critic is in journalism.[226]
Women classical music critics include:


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