AMS Philadelphia 2009
Committee on the Status of Women
“Perspectives on the CSW since 1974”
Chair, Wendy Heller
Thursday 12 November, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Room: Logans 1
Jane Bernstein
My talk will consider the role of women in the AMS prior to the formation of the CSW and in its early years, focusing in particular on “watershed” meeting in 1973, with Janet Knapp (the first woman president) and its aftermath.
Judith Tick
I will talk about my stint as the CSW chair beginning in 1987, and consider as well the speakers that we had—including an early talk by Susan McClary.
Judy Tsou
This paper examines the reasons behind the paucity of women in the academy, from the time when musicology was recognized as a discipline in the US in the 1930s to when the Equal Employment Opportunity Act was enforced in the 1970s. Some of the reasons for the lack of women academics were the fear of feminization of musicology, the lack of a formal hiring process, gendered recommendation letters, established men discrediting research by women, the lack of models and mentors, blatant discrimination, and research support for men that was not available to women. The establishment of the CSW and other small steps taken by the Society have greatly aided the chances of women academics in the last decade.
Julie E. Cumming
I will reflect on changes in the status of women in musicology between c. 1980 and today, based on my own experiences and observations. I will discuss status in two senses: the general meaning, with reference to the overall numerical representation of women in the profession; and the particular meaning, with reference to how individual women musicologists (at all stages in their careers) negotiate status in their everyday working lives. Greater numbers of women in the profession does not necessarily translate into higher status for women. I will also reflect on women’s strategies for establishing their authority. Do we have models for authority that are not based on male patterns of behaviour? Is authority what we want
Marcia Citron
I chaired the CSW in the early 1980s, and then as much as now the committee has made the connection between the current status of women and inquiry into historical women. Today I will share some thoughts on doing research on women, many drawn from my own experience. This includes work on Fanny Hensel in (West) Berlin's major library, exploration of Cécile Chaminade at the home of her descendants, and the challenge of "picking up" interdisciplinary feminist theory in preparation for Gender and the Musical Canon at a time when such work was foreign to musicology. In closing, the paper notes the relationship between musicology's ever-increasing "big-tent" demographics and research on women, and the role of CSW in leveling the playing field for female scholars.
Susan Cook
I’m interested in having us think about the issue of status itself, the condition of individual or group “standing” as part of larger social and professional relationships. How has our understanding of “status” changed over time within this committee? How do we know or measure our standing within and without this committee, its parent organization and beyond? More importantly, how do simultaneously promote changes of status while insuring that we don’t replicate the social and professional hierarchies or legitimate the metrics that contributed to our perceived sense of “low status” to begin with. Do we need a committee makeover?
