a scholarly research area whose subject matter is the systematic study of gender.gender is treated as a socially constructed concept

based on perceived differences between the sexes.gender is a primary way of signifying relationships

of power.“the understanding of women's roles,

experiences and contributions as well as the various ways in which gender as social construct has defined those roles in different cultural settings.”

“the retrieval of women's composition”.“the study of their [women’s] activities as

composers, performers and users of music”.“a critical approach in which the

understanding of gender and gender ideology is brought to bear upon the entire musical realm.”

“Specifically, feminist musical scholarship sees music as both product and promulgator of a gendered social order.”

women composers and performers produce music on par with their male counterparts, but they are underrepresented in the Canon or have been denied an audience.

women are not on par with their male counterparts because they have not had equal access to education, opportunity, or resources to “compete” with men.

Reshaping a Discipline: Musicology and Feminism in the 1990s Author(s): Susan McClary Source: Feminist Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, Women's Bodies and the State, (Summer, 1993), pp. 399-423.

before 1970 – “I remember being told in graduate school at Harvard that if there had been women composers, we most assuredly would have been told about them; unfortunately....”

new work on women’s participation in the Western tradition Clara Wiek Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn

Hensel.extraordinary women of the more distant past:

Hildegard von Bingen - twelfth century. Barbara Strozzio – seventeenth century.

20th century composers:Amy Beach, Cecile Chaminade, Ethel Smyth,

Mary Carr Moore, Florence, Price, Ruth Crawford Seeger.

Why do women show up so infrequently in repertory lists?performing institutions unwilling to “take

risks”.writing for genres with less “prestige value”.

Feminist critique of major works