What is it about?
We report on a qualitative study in which we investigated the careers and identities of 225 female composers. The data highlight the persistent marginalization of female composers, as a result of which the female gender is viewed as a career disadvantage. The intersection of gender and age was a contributing factor. To lessen the impact of their gender, women concealed and/or fabricated their gender. These tactics are usually associated as identity management techniques for invisible, rather than visible stigmatized identities.
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Why is it important?
The gendered nature of careers in music composition has attracted scholarly attention for some 25 years, but the strategies employed by female composers to manage their identity remain largely unaddressed. Here are the key findings: • Female composers are negatively perceived because of their gender • There is persistent marginalization of female composers • In music composition, the extent to which gender is visible varies • Female composers graduate without strategies to manage discrimination • Differentiation strategies enable women to feel authentic and to change stereotypes
Perspectives
The interesting thing about composition is that gender can be invisible in some contexts and visible in others, so women might hide or disguise their gender (using an initial for example) in order to avoid bias, but they do that knowing that eventually their gender will become known.
Professor Dawn Bennett
Curtin University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hiding gender: How female composers manage gender identity, Journal of Vocational Behavior, July 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.07.003.
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