Committee on the Status of Women: minutes of meeting

2003 Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society
15 November 2003, 7 a.m.
Houston Hyatt Regency, Redbud Room

I. Members in attendance

Margaret Notley (University of North Texas), Chair
Daniel Beller-McKenna (University of New Hampshire)
Heather Hadlock (Stanford University)
Steve Lindeman (Brigham Young University)
Nina Treadwell (Grinnell College)
Judy Tsou (University of Washington)

Also present: Jeannie Pool

II. Introduction of new members, all of whom were present at the meeting

Dorothea Link (University of Georgia)
Honey Meconi (Rice University)
James Parakilas (Bates College)

Jeannie Pool reminded us that we were approaching the 30-year anniversary of the establishment of the CSW, and that this should be acknowledged.  She mentioned that serving on the CSW in the early years was problematic for some women who were "black-listed" from jobs; other women were rejected from programs in the 1970s.

Margaret Notley suggested that the CSW make plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary.  She suggested soliciting information from women from the "early period," mentioning the struggle for women to get recognition in the profession (e.g. getting tenure-track positions) and the obstacles to researching women composers.  Honey Meconi noted that women were awarded AMS 50 fellowships only on an infrequent basis at that time.

J. Pool recalled that she was told not to write a dissertation on Amy Beach in 1978.  H. Meconi noted that many different kinds of topics at this time were not considered appropriate: e.g. Sibelius.

J. Pool suggested assembling documents by contacting people on the original committee and those involved in the same in the CMS; Judith Tick and Adrienne Fried Block were mentioned.

III. Discussion of Thursday evening’s session

The later starting time (8:30 p.m.) seems to have been advantageous.

Our “post-mortem” discussion of the panel focused on the issue of service, which Susan McClary and other speakers had noted often “doesn’t count” toward promotion.  It was noted that women and minorities often end up doing double duty.  Nina Treadwell suggested that different kinds of institutions exert different kinds of pressures re a faculty member’s service commitments.

Jim Parakilas suggested that people should propose job sharing to employers.  (Often small liberal arts colleges are interested in this.)  Jeannie Pool suggested that it would make an interesting study to look at this—when it does and doesn’t work.

IV. Report by Chair, Margaret Notley, on organizational retreat for newly formed Membership and Professional Development Committee (1-2 Nov., Madison, WI)

Margaret Notley explained that the Membership and Professional Development Committee (MPD) will include representatives from various groups, including the AMS Council, the Committee on Cultural Diversity, the Committee on the Status of Women, et al.  Judy Tsou (U Washington) will chair the MPD Committee.

The purpose of the committee is to determine the needs of members of the AMS and to make it a more useful organization.

The MPD Committee plans to conduct a new demographic survey of the membership.  Another question is why people leave the society.

Members of the AMS have expressed concern about the growing number of unaffiliated scholars. MPD found this to be the most pressing issue and will deal with it first.

MPD is investigating the question of library privileges for unaffiliated scholars.

For scholars with demonstrated need, a proposal has been put forth for grants to help them attend national meetings to give papers, chair panels, and attend committee meetings.

A mentoring program for AMS members is under discussion.  The MPD Committee’s web site will feature basic advice on professional matters such as the academic job search process.

The Committee will be launched in a plenary session at the Seattle meeting of the AMS in 2004. 

V. Plans for next year’s CSW Open Meeting program

All agreed that the 8:30 start time was preferable. (Judy Tsou noted that attendance also depends on factors such as other events on the schedule.)  The format of shorter papers/remarks worked well. 

It was noted that topics bear repeating every five years or so, as there are new students etc.

The 2005 panel will be on “Getting Published.”  The panel will feature four speakers, two from book publishing companies and the other two journal editors.  Speakers will be encouraged to  address specific problems that female and feminist scholars face in publishing, including issues of subject matter, style, lack of mentoring, etc.

VI. Presentation by Chair (from Karen Ahlquist) re preliminary findings on “Surveying the Status of Women Faculty in Musicology”

Karen was able to find more general statistics (see the handout “Surveying the Status of Women Faculty”) but had difficulty obtaining information specifically re musicologists.  College Music Society statistics are incomplete.  She explored other sources, but these also had incomplete data.

Judy Tsou indicated that NASM information was more complete.

Jeannie Pool suggested that we might want to start some kind of survey or record retrieval for the thirtieth anniversary. She has some early documents.

Dan Beller-McKenna observed that it will become harder and harder to get these statistics once JAMS is on-line.

Judy Tsou suggested going to all the previous chairs to get copies of their minutes.

Honey and Dan volunteered to find out about how to get statistics.

VII. Closing

The CSW thanked outgoing members Steve Lindeman and Judy Tsou