Abigail Spiker AP Gov & Politics Final Project Women in Music Education. An Introduction As a woman in music who is looking to go into education, I have sought out many leadership positions over my last couple of years of high school. While there have been many wonderful opportunities and learning experiences, I have also witnessed first hand what it means to be educated as a woman. I stood in front of a room of students, held myself tall and respectfully asked for their attention, and then been asked why I had the right to be there. I have talked to people, through people, and sometimes not at all just to try to get things done. But I have also watched as they do the exact same thing to my female teachers, the people who deserve the most respect. We live in a society where we strive to reduce inequality and hold women up as high as we hold men up. Unfortunately, there is still systemic discrimination in almost every …show more content…
With music education in particular, this ties in directly with their performing careers. During WWI and WWII, men formed military bands that often existed post war. These bands are membership based and incredibly exclusive to women. As a result, women were often inexperienced or lacked the resumes required to get hired. Bands such as the Helen May Butler's Ladies Military Band (Helen May Butler was one of the first American women band leaders) were formed in order to combat this issue, but they were often illegitimate within the music community. The same goes for major orchestras and symphonies. This time away from major careers resulted in women music educators falling behind in the mix. While they were often found teaching voice or piano within the home, even their lesson plans were created by men. This build up of attempts to push women out of music left them historically underrepresented in music education and in the workforce in