Steven Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>The question of whether - until the Messiah comes - we should have
>all-girl orchestras comes down to the issue of whether women musicians can
>make a living as easily as males or if they have a harder time, due solely
>to their sex.  Statistics seem to bear out the latter, not that everybody's
>getting rich from performing classical music.  It's like the ghetto of the
>All-Modern or All-American concert.  It has all the disadvantages of the
>ghetto, but without such affairs, you tend not to hear this music in
>concert at all.  Without such organizations, do women get hired in
>commensurate numbers with equally-qualified males?

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 would not
go so far as to say that about those in other countries, but such hiring
practices are illegal in the U.S., and, in CA, so is affirmative action.
Hiring practices that exclude anyone based on sex, race, or anything beyond
qualifications is just flat-out wrong.

--Leigh