Addressing gender inequality in and through music composing studies

Introduction

This article aims to better understand how music education may play a role in addressing and alleviating gender inequality in music composing. The professional field of composing, especially within the domain of Western art music, is arguably one of the most gender-segregated and “masculinised of all the creative artist occupations” (Cooper et al., 2017, p. 5). It has been estimated that globally only 20% of composers are female¹ (Parsons & Ravenscroft, 2016), with less than 8% of compositions played by orchestras written by women (Donne, 2022). Examples from the authors’ own contexts confirm male dominance in composition: In Finland, approximately 13% of professional composers represented by The Society of Finnish Composers are women (Finnish Composers, 2022) and music composed by female composers continues to be strikingly underrepresented in the core repertoire of symphony orchestras (Malkavaara, 2019; Mattila & Hirn, 2022), the historical canon (Välimäki & Koivisto, 2019a, 2019b), and within higher music education studies (Talvitie & Partti, 2023). In the UK, women only represented 26% of the shortlist for the British Composers Awards in 2018, and 33% of BBC Proms commissions in 2019 (Women in Music 2019). As elsewhere in the labour market, gender segregation in the music industry manifests itself in various ways. For instance, according to a Finnish study (Rimpilä, 2017), the highest positions of authority and prestige, such as record company CEOs, artistic directors of music festivals, and chief conductors of symphony orchestras, are largely occupied by men. Another example of unequal representation is vertical segregation (e.g. European Institute for Gender Equality, 2016), which describes how, despite relatively equal numbers of men and women in a field, the roles and activities they carry out can be highly gendered. This can be observed in UK conservatoires where the numbers of women studying music outnumbers that of men (Green, 1997; Scharff, 2018), but only 36% of composition students identify as female (British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, 2016). In Finland, approximately a third of students at the university-level composition studies are female (Partti, 2019). Similarly, Scharff (2015) found disproportionately more women working as music teachers, except within music conservatoires.

Although manifestations of gender inequalities can be clearly seen in the professional field of composing, the aim of advancing equality is also a matter of significant concern for music education at all levels (e.g., Bennett et al., 2018). Research has shown that career choice and establishment of career identity lies on the threshold of late adolescence and adulthood (e.g. Ramaci et al., 2017) with the realization of the arts as a genuine professional opportunity typically arising in adolescence, most often in upper secondary school or immediately thereafter (Piispa, 2013). This means that the ways composing is taught in schools and music education institutions really matters. Despite composing in education becoming more commonplace around the world (Devaney et al. 2023), corresponding with the promotion of creativity in education more widely (Eisner, 2002), there remains little guidance and support for ways to teach composing (Savage & Fautley, 2011; Winters, 2012) especially in regards to upper secondary school (Devaney, 2023). Therefore, many music teachers may feel uncertain about teaching composing due to coming from a performance background (Odam, 2000; Sheridan & Byrne, 2002; Barrett, 2006). A teacher’s beliefs and experiences often influence pedagogy (Jenkins, 1992; Soderman et al., 2015); therefore, teachers’ outdated or gendered attitudes towards composition are likely to affect how they teach and what kinds of attitudes and presumptions they pass on to their students. Research has found that composing teaching can be heavily prescriptive, centered around technical theory exercises and pastiche composition (Francis, 2012; Salaman, 1988) with specific Western classical composing practices being reinforced, such as emphasis on composing using staff notation (Fautley, 2017; Hickey, 2012), or an individualistic perspective of creativity (Burnard, 2012; Craft, 2006; Devaney, 2023), which may be limiting for students with more diverse musical backgrounds.

“Ideologies of gendered musical practices” can even be found in primary school music classrooms (Charles, 2004, p. 267). These gendered assumptions can be expected to play a significant role in gender differences in occupational preferences, which continue to be “important drivers of occupational gender segregation” (Seehuus, 2021, p. 2). In a recent study comparing composing teaching practices between England and Germany, Devaney et al. (2021), discovered that the overwhelming majority of composers used by music teachers in the classroom as role models were male, with the top five collectively being: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Reich and Cage. The scarcity of role models for women composers even made headlines in England when the A-level syllabus did not include any music by a female composer (Gallagher, 2015). The significant “dearth of female role models and mentors” (Bennett et al., 2018, p. 243) may be a major contributing factor as to why men outnumber women in higher education composing studies (Scharff, 2018, p. 45); as Kerry Andrew argues, “if girls are presented with examples of successful female creators in all genres, they might view composition as a viable profession for themselves” (Andrew, 2012, n.p.). There is, indeed, a long history of linking such attributes as intelligence, profoundness, and natural talent to masculine authority (Koskinen, 2006; Ramstedt, 2019). Green (2002) explicitly found this gendered distinction from music teachers, stating that teachers commonly: “regarded boys as excelling at composition by virtue of being more imaginative, adventurous and creative. Contrastingly, they saw girls as dull and lacking in creative spark” (p. 139). However outdated such understandings of musical creativity may be, they are deeply ingrained in social conventions; and as such serve as reifications or performative acts through which social reality is not only explained, but also constituted.

In this article, we examine two recent composing education projects for young people aged between 14 and 19: Equity in Composing (Yhdenvertaisesti säveltäen) in Finland and Young Composers Project in England. Both projects have an explicit aim of advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion in composing and include educational development and research, led by one of the two authors of this article (Partti in Finland, Devaney in the UK). The study asks: How were issues related to gender inequality addressed in the two projects? Recognizing that “composing is a complex activity, and no single classroom pedagogy can be considered as universally appropriate” (Fautley, 2004, p. 202), our intention is not to present the projects as models to be copied and applied in other contexts. Rather, we utilize the projects in this study to illustrate the ways it is possible in and through music composing studies to influence and change attitudes about composers and ultimately occupational choice.

How occupational choices are made

Theoretically, this study draws upon narrative research approach and studies on occupational choice. The lengthy and multidimensional process of choosing one’s profession and educational path is influenced by different factors, ranging from individual preferences to social influences. Although individual features, such as personality differences (e.g., Kuckelkorn et al., 2021), leisure activities (Hong et al., 1993), and one’s early experiences of working life (e.g., summer jobs) are significant (Haikkola & Myllyniemi, 2020), studies show that social factors are deeply intertwined in the processes of occupational choice. As pointed out by Haikkola and Myllyniemi (2020, p. 23), it is likely that an individual is not always aware of the various factors influencing their own decisions, such as that of parents’ profession (Ramaci et al., 2017), local educational and employment possibilities (Lahtinen, 2019), social beliefs held by parents and teachers (e.g. Jacobs et al., 2006) or the presence of (and therein lack of) role models that can be presented through channels such as the media and even in children’s literature (Watt, 2009). Furthermore, it is typical that the process of occupational choice is heavily influenced by perceptions of any given professional field. Although gender is not the only influencing factor, studies show that gender beliefs can play a significant role in career aspirations and occupational decision-making processes, especially in adolescence (Ramaci et al., 2017). What is important for this study is that researchers also found that stereotypes held and, often unconsciously, implemented by parents and teachers, play a significant role in guiding “adolescents toward professions deemed appropriate to the belonging gender” (Ramaci et al., 2017, p. 115).

Although perceptions related to a career in music may impact the occupational choices of an individual, these perceptions are not entirely fabricated in the individual’s imagination. Indeed, they can be understood as culturally and socially constructed “truths”, or narratives, producing identities and generating “symbolic boundaries around types of social actors” (Loseke, 2007, p. 661). Narratives are generated in our ongoing efforts of negotiating and renegotiating the meanings of the events around us, as claimed by Bruner (1987, p. 33): “a life is not ‘how it was’ but how it is interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold”. This is to say, that although narratives serve an individual in their personal quest of giving meanings to events around them—indeed, providing a sense of “having a direction towards what I am not yet” (Taylor, 1989, p. 48)—they are deeply embedded in social encounters, both “produced and performed in accordance with socially shared conventions” (Atkinson & Delamont, 2006, p. xxi). A further angle to the understanding of the interaction between narratives and experiences is opened when viewing narratives as a kind of a “pool of collective stories” (Saarilammi, 2007), available for individuals in their processes of constructing identities. Collective stories produce and allocate “imagined characteristics” (Loseke, 2007, p. 661). An example of this is the construction of “The Great Composer” which is often displayed in media and/or popular culture as a tortured (white/male) artist with extraordinary talents from a young age, often composing (writing) music in isolation (Laycock, 2005). These narratives embody a cultural reality and model to the individual what is deemed socially acceptable or unacceptable, desirable or undesirable; including (gendered) professional preferences and ideals.

Case studies and research data

Research methods were drawn from interpretivist paradigms with the understanding that participants attribute meaning through interpretations of their own lived experiences (Bryman, 2016; Creswell 2009; Miller & Glassner, 2004). To help understand and observe the complexity of “human action” (Bryman, 2016, p. 28), data were collected “from the point of view of those who live it” (Schwandt, 1994, p. 118) through the use of semi-structured interviews and observations. This qualitative multicase research study (Stake, 1995) contains two separate educational projects that both offer a specific angle into questions of gender equality in composing. The cases are Equity in Composing, EiC (2019–2020) in Finland and Young Composers Project, YCP (2013–ongoing) in the UK. Fundamental to both projects is the belief that composing is a practice that can be taught and learnt. We locate the activity of composing within the domain of creativity, defined as the process an individual or group goes through, involving decision-making and revising a piece over time (Burnard & Younker, 2002), with or without the use of notation, in order to create music that is novel (Boden, 2004). Although the projects differ from each other in their context,² including aspects such as structure and length, we found it helpful to use them to promote “opportunities to learn” (Stake, 1995, p. 6) and understand how gender inequality is manifested in the field of Western art music composing, including how it could be addressed in music education. In our venture to obtain insight, we have utilized multiple sources of research material in the data collection within the two projects, as described below.

Addressing inequality in music composing: Narratives, role models, and pedagogical approaches

In our attempt to address the overall research question (How were issues related to gender inequality addressed in the two projects?), the results of the study are presented by introducing three themes identified in our analysis of the two projects, namely (1) Challenging narrow perceptions of “The Composer”; (2) Addressing the lack of diverse role models; and (3) Introducing diverse pedagogical approaches in composing.

Discussion and concluding remarks

Our results demonstrate the importance and ways of addressing gender inequality in composing pedagogy by consciously seeking to challenge the “static and singular view of musical creativity” (Burnard, 2012, p. 9), as well as “the discursive gendering of ‘musical genius’ as masculine” (Werner et al., 2020, p. 638). Despite advancements in creativity research highlighting creativity as universal (Amabile 1996; Craft 2006; Eisner 2002), the findings from the study suggest that the narrative of the “great” and “gifted” composer, often reinforced via portrayals of composers in media as well as in education policy and political discourse (see, e.g., Department for Education, National Curriculum in England Music Programmes of Study, 2013), remains prevalent in the minds of young people. This was also found by Weisberg (2010) and Devaney (2018, 2023). Importantly, this study shows that the low proportion of women in music composing cannot be left as a concern solely for the professional field. The study highlights that through carefully designed education work with equality, diversity, and inclusion at the core, steps can be taken to dismantle potentially outdated and gendered beliefs about who composers are and what they do, and also have an impact on perceptions that play a role in occupational choices made by young people. The two projects illustrate how music education, instead of maintaining and renewing the unequal social reality, can take up resistance by doing things differently. In the projects, this resistance took place in many ways, such as by offering alternative examples of composition role models to the young people, encouraging the young people to take ownership of the word composer and even consider and pursue a career in composing.

As the study has focused on two specific education initiatives, in which the authors are closely involved in, being aware of the limitations and shortcomings of the programmes is also important to share. At times, due to external realities (such as funding, institutional arrangements, and the global pandemic), compromises had to take place. For example, with EiC, due to a lack of time, there was a strong emphasis placed upon the final compositions of students, rather than allowing more time for the creative process. The same dilemma was also raised by Fautley et. al (2014), who gets us to question who the final performance is really for. Another limitation raised by EiC was how students were constrained in terms of aesthetic style, with staff notation being used as the main/only musical language used to convey musical ideas, and how to support students from non-western classical musical backgrounds. Both issues raised by EiC have also played a factor in the reflections and revisions within YCP. Being based in a multicultural city and in light of the resurgence of #BlackLivesMatter of 2020, YCP continues to reflect not just on the representation of women composers, but also composers of color, and musicians from diverse musical heritages, as well as disabled, neurodivergent and non-binary music creators.

Regardless of their limitations, by focusing on the two educational projects, we have aimed to highlight the crucial role music education can have in addressing the wider issue of the genderedness of the composing profession. As in all sectors of society, gender-segregation in music is detrimental to both individuals and the wider labor market. Highly gendered occupational fields restrict everyone’s choices, and the loss of creative potential may also cause the field to stagnate (Brook et al., 2020). On a larger scale, segregation also provides a breeding ground for broader inequalities in society (Julkunen, 2009). Our specific interest has therefore been bringing forth the ways composing pedagogy can either reproduce and re-establish gendered musical ideologies and taken-for-granted privileges, or can actively challenge them. In the wider field of music education, the alleviation of gender inequality is likely to call for a heightened understanding of “music as a social act and social fact […] a fundamentally ethical undertaking” (Bowman, 2007, p. 109). The matters of social injustices, such as gender segregation, are not separate or peripheral from “the seemingly neutral concept of the music” (Bennett et al., 2018, p. 238), but, indeed, integrated in and enacted through musical, pedagogical, and curricular choices made. An example discussed in this study is the teaching of the canon through which it is possible to reinforce or critique “the power relations that define what music deserves to be included” and performed (Werner et al., 2020, p. 640; see also Talvitie & Partti, 2023). While supporting women in their efforts of pursuing diverse careers in music is necessary, gender inequalities are tackled primarily by confronting institutional discrimination and the structures enabling exclusion rather than by urging women to better compete in masculinist environments and gendered aesthetic traditions (De Boise, 2018).

Finally, we recognize the need for further research around the complex issue of gender inequality in the educational and professional fields of music. The focus of this study has been in discussing gender-segregation from the viewpoint of supporting girls and women in pursuing a career in composing; however, an intersectional understanding of gender is necessary in future research. Although being beyond the scope of this study, socio-economic factors, class, and ethnicity continue to prevent opportunities for participation particularly in higher music education (De Boise, 2018) and especially when these factors intersect with gender. As stated by Werner et al. (2020, p. 645), “[g]ender equality cannot be pursued without addressing power dimensions of for example social class, racism and trans- and homophobia in music practice”. Ultimately, it is crucial for further research and music education institutions to critically reflect and systematically address the accustomed narratives, prejudiced attitudes, and exclusive practices in order to advance the agenda for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field of music.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their warm gratitude to the students and mentors for taking part in the research.