“As 2022 begins, there are reasons to salute recent advancements women have made globally in the arts,” writes Laurie C. Williams in Tuesday’s (2/8) Ms. Magazine. “For the first time in history, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra hired a woman, Valerie Schatz, to join the ranks of the double bass section. The Atlanta Symphony welcomes Nathalie Stutzmann to the podium in 2022 as the only woman [music director of] a major symphony in the United States.… Women have long suffered discrimination in the arts beyond music…. As a female university music educator, professional musician and conductor, I [offer] gender-balanced representations of master conductors for study…. In a recent global study … 98 percent of the music performed by major orchestras was written by male composers. Women represent just 20 percent or fewer of composers and songwriters.… More disturbing [is a report from] the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California [citing] three key factors that undermine equality for women in the music industry: sexual harassment and objectification, ageism and male-dominated resources…. But many are … aiming to accelerate progress toward arts gender equity,” including conductor Marin Alsop, the Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
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