The ICTM Study Group on Music and Gender seeks to promote the growth of insight and understanding of gender as a critical factor in social interaction and thereby contribute meaningful theoretical dimensions to any study of musical culture. Objectives (adopted at its second meeting at the Freie Universität in West Berlin on July 27-29, 1987): A gender balanced view of musical and dance activities is required since our work produces documents which in the future will be a source for historians and other scholars. Towards this end, we will:
1. Encourage understanding of gender in terms of the roles it plays in societies.
2. Stimulate critical evaluation of gender roles within our discipline.
3. Identify basic lacunae in the areas of music and dance cross-culturally.
4. Expand the methodological and theoretical bases for data collection and provide a forum for the presentation and interpretation of new material.
5. Publish and disseminate research findings
The Harrogate Band (a British band) http://www.harrogateband.org/wmm.htm Brass Bands wouldn't exist without women and yet barely any music is ever performed that has been written by a woman, very few female conductors exist, hardly any women adjudicate brass band competitions. It's a situation that is persists largely without question.
Women are well represented in brass banding but their contribution is rarely recognized, visible and celebrated. Most bands wouldn't function without the work of women committee members, brass band competitions are kept going by women nearly always tucked away out of the limelight behind the scenes doing vital administrative jobs, women are looking after children whilst their husbands play and 50% of the audiences are female.