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TEACHING TERTIARY MUSIC IN THE #METOO ERA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2020

Louise Devenish ,
Cecilia Sun ,
Cat Hope  and
Vanessa Tomlinson
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Abstract

Over the past two decades significant changes in approaches to gender equity have taken place in the fields of contemporary music and music research. However, women in music are still disadvantaged in terms of income, inclusion and professional opportunities. In Australia a national approach to improving gender equity in music has begun to emerge as once-controversial strategies trialled by four tertiary institutions have become established practices. This article discusses successful inclusion strategies for women in music, including the commitment to gender-balanced programming across all concerts at Queensland Conservatorium of Music by 2025, the introduction of mandatory quotas in recital programmes at Monash University, mentoring programmes for women composers at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the development of coursework devoted to women in music at The University of Western Australia, as well as other initiatives that have emerged from them, both within and beyond the institution. Each approach is examined in the context of broader global discussions around gender and feminism. The public willingness to engage in discussions over sexual harassment, sexual assault and gender discrimination in the workplace that has resulted from the #MeToo movement is cited as key in influencing the engagement of students and professionals with these strategies and subsequent influence on performance practices, project development and presentational formats in new music.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 74 , Issue 292 , April 2020 , pp. 30 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

1 Rae Cooper, Amanda Coles and Sally Hanna-Osbourne, Skipping a Beat: Assessing the State of Gender Inequality in the Australian Music Industry, report from the University of Sydney Business School, 2017.

2 Ashley Fure, GRID: Gender Research in Darmstadt (2016). Accessed 11 September. 2019 Available at https://griddarmstadt.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/grid_gender_research_in_darmstadt.pdf.

3 South Australia hosted the Composing Women's Festival in Adelaide in 1991, a celebration of Australian composers in many genres including Indigenous women's music from Central Australia. The Festival went on to be celebrated in several other Australian cities after that and can be seen as a precursor to more recent activity.

4 Dana Reason Myers, ‘The Myth of Absence: Representation, Reception and the Music of Experimental Women Improvisers’ (PhD diss., University of California San Diego, 2002), p. 132.

5 This strategy is outlined in some detail in Cat Hope, 2019, ‘What Can [Should?] a Music School in a Modern Australian University Look Like?’ Available a: http://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/what-can-should-a-music-school-in-a-modern-australian-university-look-like/

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11 Sun had previously offered classes on some of this material before at other institutions, such as Music and Gender units at the University of California, Irvine, and The University of Sydney, however this was the first time she had offered a class under the title of Women in Music rather than the broader umbrella of gender and music.

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13 See, for example, McClary, Susan, Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Cusick, Suzanne, ‘Gendering Modern Music: Thoughts on the Monteverdi–Artusi Controversy’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 46, no. 1 (1993), 1–25Google Scholar.

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17 Liza Lim, ‘Luck, Grief, Hospitality – Rerouting Power Relationships in Music’, Keynote for ‘Women in the Creative Arts’ conference, ANU, 11 August 2017. Available at https://lizalimcomposer.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/1-final_lim_rerouting-power-anu-keynote.pdf.