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Date: | Fri, 9 Apr 1999 16:45:47 -0700 |
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Leigh wrote:
>Can you really say that you know of one American female classical
>musician who has been denied employment in the past 20 years? I would to
>doubt it, as I would the existence of any statistics that would lead one
>to the conclusion that female musicians in the U.S. face this.
I think that, in the discussion thus-far, inadequate credit has been
given to the role of the American Federation of Musicians. Earlier and
more powerfully than the force of law, the AFofM began in the 1960s to
require in its contracts a simple provision: the screen audition. When
the screen audition procedure took hold in the 1970s, it quickly evened the
playing field and allowed women to be heard fairly and without presumption
of gender. It was, primarily, the women members of the AFofM who pushed
for this reform.
It was the power of the AFofM union contracts with symphony, opera, and
ballet boards which gave life to this reform. The natural and equal talent
of women has done the rest. Although the problem is not perfectly solved,
it's close.
Charles Barber
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