Women in Music - Gender Role - Essay Example

Are women musicians and/or composers treated differently from their male counterparts today? SherylSandberg in her new book “Lean In” tries to explore the question that why aren’t women raised to the top positions in leadership and management in any of the industry. This might help us to get to understand the factors which serve as hurdle for women in the male dominant music industry. Sandberg is currently working as a CEO for Facebook. She is constantly working to alarm women about their roles in the male dominant industries. In her book “Lean In”, she provides the information about the number of women who are the Head of States and Chief Operating Officers worldwide and also the ones who are the Parliamentarians. Her book discusses the internal barriers which restrict women from moving forward and be successful. She also put light on the external barriers that the society imposes on them such as not getting flexible working hours or not getting paid paternal leave etc. She discussed the self-limiting attitude imposed by the society and how this kind of attitude holds women back from enjoying the career success and freedom that is enjoyed by men. At first people may think that the contemporary classical music does not share much of the things common with the corporate tech industry and therefore women have a greater chance of rising in the field of art. On analyzing the two industries one can see that the leadership balance still exists in both administrative and artistic roles. The gender imbalance can be seen in the symphony Orchestra of America. This shift in the music industry can simply be counted by counting the number of women present on the orchestras’ chairs in America (McSweeney, 2013). In the music world present outside America, it is difficult to quantify that how far the women have succeeded in making their distinctive place in this particular industry. As the economy of music industry is not as formal as others, therefore we can’t exactly count the full time hires because not many full time jobs exist in the industry. Women making their position on the top in the music art industry mean getting to a position with more aesthetic, social and cultural influence. Such kind of success can be harder to identify in the first place (Anon., 2014). “The Chicagoan of the year in Music” is chosen annually by Chicago Tribune, which is an acknowledgment for the artists for their ground breaking and visionary work for music. All the nine honorees been acknowledged by Chicago Tribune have been men. The jury that selects these honorees is also based on men. A current music power list that was presented by The Chicago Magazine, written by a male writer included 7 men and a single woman. The men present on the list are ambitious, socially connected and artistically adventurous. The woman present on the list is Mei-Ann Chen, who is a conductor and is pursuing her career commentated by one of the biggest Chicago Orchestral Institute. The kind of power that can be coherent in Mein Ann’s career has not very much overlapping with the self-made kind of career of men present on the power list. Chen’s inclusion in the list seems a bit out of place, as it is for the first time that any woman has been honored by the Chicago Magazine for her role in music (Kirsten, 2012). If we look around we will see that most of the influential and creative organizations or the ones whose dynamism and creativity exists in our professional lives as well as our cultures are all being run by men. For example, Spektral Quartet is all men based, then it’s Chicagomusic.org which is purely run by men as well and then all the six employees at Elastic Art are men too. Beethoven Festival which is voted to be one of the most grand and exciting cultural initiative takes place in Chicago. There are six musicians present on its executive committee out of which only one is woman, who is in charge for the educational outreach. The Cultural Affair and Special Events Department is currently working hard to change the face of the city by investing in contemporary music. If we look at the people responsible for cultural programming activities, we will see that all 4 of them are men. That men are contributing so much to the contemporary music is not at all a reason of dissatisfaction but the purpose of this paper is show that the role of women and their participation in all the music related projects is not equal (Lebrecht, 2013). Among the ensembles of contemporary music at Chicago, about 63 percent of the musicians are men. In radio outlet or some of the world’s major publications, the percentage of men involved in music writing is about 82 percent. One of the Chicago based publication named “Pitch Pork Media” is currently paying a lot of attention to the development of “indie-classical music”. Only 6 out of 40 staff members working there are women. Recently one of the America’s new records Label named Parlor Tapes was gathering the list of contributors for the compilation record for October. On surveying the list one may easily observe the fact that more than the 75 percent contributed there were men. Parlor tapes did not intentionally want their first release to portray such gender imbalance but it did happened. The selection team at Parlor Type comprised of two men and two women but still it missed such a valid point. While reflecting on all the examples present above, one can see that the women present in our community have visible leadership skills. There are many women who have left their mark on the contemporary music industry. Some of them are Nomi Epstein, who is a periodic director and an innovator and Claire Chase, whose mark influence is still felt in the region of Chicago after she left for New York. The success of these women cannot be considered as proof that there aren’t any problems in the music industry but it portrays the fact that in spite of problems and challenges they still achieved success. In the field of contemporary music, networking is considered to be power like every other industry. Despite giving admirable contribution in music the fact still remains there that women are not really making to the “power list”. Men have been far more successful than women in raising social capital and then utilizing it for the advancement of their music careers. One of the most significant sociological facts is that there is positive correlation between success and likability when it comes to men but a negative correlation can be found between the two factors when it comes to women. Research suggests that if the career of a man is successful, thriving and ambitious then there are more possibilities that his peer will find him likable but on the other side if a woman has achieved the career same as the man then there are chances of her peer finding her less likable. There are two studies present in the “Journal of Applied Psychology” that are named as the “Penalty for success”. These studies suggest that women are more likely to pay the social tax for all their success and professional achievements that men usually don’t. Women in the music industry cannot promote themselves in the way done by men. They have to face several negative consequences that start with the way they are being perceived by the society. Such negative consequences can be problematic for women who are performing artists, for they need to cultivate connections and strive to get a huge fan base in order to survive in such competitive and male dominant music industry (Sergeant, 2007). Women musicians are less likely to take professional risk for their career development or they find it difficult to perceive themselves as leaders. This leaves them at a disadvantage of developing their careers. Research also suggests that when at work staff members are allowed to choose risky or challenging tasks, the level of interest shown by men is much greater than that shown by women. Another research suggests that women are less likely to conceive themselves as visionaries or leaders than men. This does not at all point towards the fact that women are not able to establish a visionary career or they do not like taking risk, but it means that it is because of gender socialization that women are less likely to perceive the mention factors as a possibility. It is fact that women do keep underestimating their own abilities and talents due to the lack of self-promotion. It is seen that women as surgeons performs as good as men but most of the time they think that they have performed worse. When a woman musician is about to upload her new performance or she is about to call a press release, it is then that the chronic devaluing of her skills and abilities affects her (Feld, 2014). In the music industry while choosing artists to hire, firms more likely choose men over women. This trend has proved to be true in more than twenty countries. So in the industry where majority of the music composers, writers, conductors and visionaries are men; the male artists and performers are given more preference than women. Similarly the senior and successful musicians prefer to mentor young men, which is again a disadvantage for female musicians. Research suggest than the mentoring relationship is formed between the mentor and the student, when younger person makes them remind of their younger self. This means that senior musicians like to sponsor young men for they are able to connect with them naturally. Since there are so many senior musicians present in the industry so this can be a drawback for young women musicians as there are very few young women musicians that are being mentored and sponsored by any of these senior musicians (Piirto, 2000). There are times when the relationship between senior male mentor and young female musician is perceived as sexual or romantic relationship. Research shows that 64 percent of the senior men hesitate to have meeting with young women, whereas 50 percent of the young women avoid having close interaction with senior men. This indicates that in such critical social settings young women musicians avoid having beers after concerts or brainstorming coffee sessions, as they are not quite comfortable with seeking mentorship that would result in leading enormous amount of professional dividend in the end (Ambache, 2013). The most traditional social settings force women to decide at an early stage that what exactly they want to have; whether they like to have a successful career or they would like to have a family and children. Women are taught from the very beginning that if they are not able to balance their personal and professional life, there are chances that they may end up making weak family relations. Women do not get many opportunities for discussing about emotional and psychological career limitations that are enforced as the result of gender socialization. Although most of the research present on the discussed topic can be discouraging for the young female musicians who are struggling to make a name in the music industry, but they need to recognize themselves and be encouraged by the society (Anon., 2013). Many men in the music industry are not aware of these issues as their struggle is completely different from that of women. Such kind of researches may make feel men helpless or in some cases they may end up feeling skeptical or defensive. Anyhow there are efforts being made to create a musical ecosystem, where women have the liberty of practicing without any professional or social limitations. Young women musicians must be offered mentorships by senior musicians as frequently as they are being offered to young male musicians. The position of the women in the music industry can be restored only if they get the acknowledgment that they actually deserved without any kind of limitations. References Ambache, D., 2013. DIANA AMBACHE on WOMEN COMPOSERS. [Online] Available at: http://oboeclassics.com/~oboe3583/ambache/women.htm [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Anon., 2013. Women in music. [Online] Available at: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/page/Women_in_music [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Anon., 2014. Women in Music. [Online] Available at: http://www.womeninmusic.org.uk/ [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Feld, M., 2014. SUMMARY OF WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY. [Online] Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/ito/history/ [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Kirsten, A. B., 2012. THE ‘WOMAN COMPOSER’ IS DEAD. [Online] Available at: http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/the-woman-composer-is-dead/ [Accessed 6 Mmarch 2014]. Lebrecht, N., 2013. The composer Kaija Saariaho on sexism in classical music. [Online] Available at: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/11/the-composer-kaija-saariaho-on-sexism-in-classical-music.html [Accessed 8 March 2014]. McSweeney, E., 2013. THE POWER LIST: WHY WOMEN AREN’T EQUALS IN NEW MUSIC LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION. [Online] Available at: http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/the-power-list-why-women-arent-equals-in-new-music-leadership-and-innovation/ [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Piirto, J., 2000. Why Are There So Few?. [Online] Available at: http://personal.ashland.edu/~jpiirto/why_are_there_so_few.htm [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Sergeant, D. D., 2007. Gender and Music Performance: Rationale of the study. [Online] Available at: http://www.imerc.org/research_gender.php [Accessed 8 March 2014]. Read More