Gender in Music Studies

By Sophie Lesser

Music Department Gender Statistics

Across the time period in which Seccombe House was used as a music hall, around 1880-1916, music studies had a far greater percentage of female students than male students.

Music Studies Students by Gender, 1880-19151

The total number of music students varied over time, with a boom in the 1880s, but the percentage of music students that were women was always disproportionately high, especially when compared with the percentage of female students in the college’s other departments.

Why So Many Women?

Beautifying the Home

In the late 19th century, women were called “the gentler sex.” They were considered to be more refined, caring, and loving than men. Medical belief at the time held that in women, the nervous system and emotions reigned over rational thought, so women were believed to be inherently more emotional than men. This view of the nature of women may seem completely unrelated with ability in music, but it was actually considered very relevant.

Music was believed to be valuable for the same refined, emotional nature attributed to women. General opinion held that women were more naturally inclined to music than men. 

So women were more musically inclined than men, but why was it considered practically important for them to study it? In the 19th century, a woman’s place was in the home. Music was also considered a desirable avenue of study for women because playing music was part of the job of caring for the home.

Music was believed to be valuable for the same refined, emotional nature attributed to women. General opinion held that women were more naturally inclined to music than men. 

So women were more musically inclined than men, but why was it considered practically important for them to study it? At this time, it was accepted that a woman’s place was in the home. One reason that music was considered a desirable avenue of study for women because singing or playing music was part of the job of caring for the home and the family.

A course of music is a most profitable and fitting course for a young lady… who considers a lady’s accomplishments complete when she can converse in Greek or grow enthusiastic over Kant’s conception of the noumenon or the invalidity of agnosticism? How much more fitting to hear her sing or to listen, as she pours out her soul through one of Beethoven’s symphonies! As a woman she is prepared to make her home heavenly, she fills it with song.

Carletonia, 1887

Other Benefits of Music for Women

But the ability to make the home sound nice was far from the only benefit studying music was believed to provide for women. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, studying music was believed to aid women across a huge range of domains.

Explore some of the reasons that music education was thought to be key for women below!

Conclusion

The fact that Carleton’s old music studies department was so dominated by female students was no coincidence. It was a result of how music studies coincided with societal views of women at the time. The value of women was in their refinement, their gentleness, and their capacity for emotion. Studying music was believed to enhance these feminine qualities, and set women up for caring for their future homes. Studying music was also encouraged for women as a way to improve their health, happiness, place in society, and prospects for the future.

Notes

  1. This data was collected from records of academic catalogs from Carleton’s digital archives. Starting in 1890, the catalogs did not record numbers of male and female students, so those numbers were collected by manually categorizing all of the names of the listed music students as male or female. Almost all of the names were clearly male or female, but a couple students were not included because their names were hard to categorize: Merle Morgan, Vean Baldwin, Maplet Coventry Holmes, and George Margaret Miller. ↩︎

Sources

Academic Catalogs

Other written sources

  • Baym, N. (1990). Onward Christian Women: Sarah J. Hale’s History of the World. The New England Quarterly, 63(2), 249–270. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/365801.
  • Macleod, B. A. (1993). “Whence Comes the Lady Tympanist?” Gender and Instrumental Musicians in America, 1853-1990. Journal of Social History, 27(2), 291–308. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3788304.
  • “The importance of music studies”. (1887, March 1). Carletonia, page 8. Retrieved from http://edu.arcasearch.com/usmncarcd/startArcaApp/.

Images

  • Leighton, E. B. (1896). The piano lesson. Art Renewal Center. Retrieved 2023, from https://www.artrenewal.org/artworks/the-piano-lesson/edmund-blair-leighton/50476.
  • “Woman as homemaker”. From The Skillful Housewife’s Book: or Complete Guide to Domestic Cookery, Taste, Comfort and Economy, by Mrs. Lydia Green Abell, 1853.