Klarinet Archive - Posting 000174.txt from 1998/01

From: Lisa Clayton <clayton@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: women not allowed
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:17:39 -0500

>
> Phyllis New wrote:
> >
> > Just a few words to respond. Yes, I would refuse to hear any orchestra
> > that would discriminate against anyone. It is WRONG and DISGUSTING.
>
>
> Thank you for your response. As I said to a few people privately, I
> wasn't intending to fight. I have found that many people, even in highly
> educated circles, don't realize the amount of gender discrimination
> still around. And, no, I am not a fanatic about this. Something about
> the story just struck a chord. That is all.

I got into this discussion a bit late, but it reminds me of the
story of an acquaintance of mine. She had a Ph.D. in trumpet from
a very good school (sorry, don't remember which one, only that it
was a good one) and was the only woman in her program. She did at
least as well as the men in her class. She was a very good
trumpeter, and specialized in baroque as well as classical music.

However, the men in her class all managed to find work. She
she couldn't, and was given a variety of somewhat lame reasons
as to why. Discrimination can be a very covert thing. In the US,
it seems like discrimination hasn't disappeared at all-- it just
goes underground. Which is not to say there hasn't been progress,
but we constantly fool ourselves into thinking that there's nothing
wrong anymore. And that can't be farther from the truth.

As an aside, organizations like the Women's Philharmonic
exist for women like my friend to exercise their talent and training.
Hopefully it will mean that women will now have the experience
to go into other professional organizations. Organizations like
the Gay Men's Chorus (which, interestingly, has a female staff)
exist because the gay community has historically been so
marginalized that organizations like the Chorus are far more
comfortable for gay male (and lesbian & bisexual) performers
to be themselves in. (And, if you're interested, you can read
about Jon Sims, the grandfather of lesbian/gay community
music at http://www.jonsimsctr.org).

At any rate, I'll now be dropping into lurker mode, to learn more
about mouthpiece maintenance... ;-)

Lisa Clayton
clayton@-----.edu