"Why is it that outside of a few sepia females the woman musician was never born, capable of 'sending' anyone farther than the nearest exit? It would seem that even though women are of the weaker sex they would still be able to bring more out of a poor, defenseless horn than something that sounds like a cry for help."
This quote is from an issue of "Down Beat" magazine in February 1938 from an article entitled "Why Women Musicians Are Inferior" by Robert Walser. A popular female bandleader of the time, Rita Rio, responds to Walser's misogynistic article by saying that women musicians produce a much warmer and more beautiful sound than that of their male counterparts.
Although this assumption that women are and cannot be as talented musicians as men may seem like a belief that only holds in an earlier time like the late 1930s and early 1940s, I believe that this stigma still underlies many music genres and groups today.
Of course, the underlying sexism in music was inherently more evident in the 30s and 40s. When discussing jazz history the significant instrumentalists responsible for new developments in the genre are primarily male. Most of the female jazz musicians discussed are vocalists, like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Although it is partially satisfying to see how these wonderful ladies helped jazz as a genre progress, it is not fully satisfying because of two reasons.
Firstly, the range of skill in different musical areas represented is very small. Only vocalists like the two mentioned above and pianists like Mary Lou Williams are primarily talked about in jazz history whereas the male artists talked about vary in skill from the drum kit to the trumpet to the clarinet. Secondly, when discussing jazz history in a class too little time is dedicated to talking about female artists. Perhaps if more than half a class period was dedicated to talking about women in jazz than women would be more appreciated in music in general.
However, part of the reason that women are so underrepresented in jazz is that at the time it began development women were still seen as inferior to men and were not given much opportunity to leap into the genre. Women were meant to stay at home, cleaning, cooking, and caring for the children, not going out and playing in bands all night like many of the male jazz artists were doing. I believe women were more likely to become involved vocally rather than instrumentally at the time because they would not be as shunned singing as they would be playing an instrument. This is because men still associated singing with a more sexual connotation that still held from the old shows that were performed where women sang and danced all while being scantily clad in barely any clothing.
If given the opportunity at the time though, women could have made just as large of an impact as men have had on the jazz genre and music in general. This is evident from the skillful piano playing of Mary Lou Williams, the ability of Billie Holiday to evoke unfathomable emotion into her singing, and from the wide vocal range and complex skill of Ella Fitzgerald. Women do contribute more largely to jazz in the current era, but it seems that jazz is still viewed as a man's genre and world.
This was particularly clear to me when I went to the UNC jazz concert last week. There were hardly any ladies playing in the band, and the ones that were playing either played the more conventionally female instruments like the flute or rarely soloed at all. This does not mean that the male members of the band are sexist and directly shunning females from joining the jazz band. All it shows is that the stigma that jazz is a male art is still holding indirectly. With women so poorly represented in jazz history, it may be intimidating for a girl to want to try and participate in jazz groups for fear of being viewed as not as skilled as other players simply for being female.
I also believe that the stigma around certain instruments being more feminine should be eradicated, as well as the one that because these instruments are seen as more feminine it takes less skill to play them. This is just simply not true. Just because someone plays the clarinet and someone else plays the trombone does not mean that the trombone player is better for playing what is deemed as a more masculine instrument.
I slightly experienced this myself in marching band. Because I play the clarinet, an instrument the others viewed as being more "lame" than others, others acted like the music I was playing was not hard and that I did not know as much about music as they did. One section leader even thought that they knew better for the clarinet section I was leading, even though I had a much more extensive knowledge of the clarinet and how to play it than they did.
The underlying sexism in concert band and jazz band needs to stop. Just because someone is a lady or maybe plays an instrument like the clarinet or the flute does not mean that they are not a talented musician. Honestly, playing any instrument takes a lot of skill and work, and if someone can play an instrument well than they are partaking in the amazing act of creating music and that is awesome. I hope that in the future women will be more properly represented in jazz history and that in a college band setting more ladies will begin to join jazz and concert band. Women have proved their skill in music time and time again, and they deserve more appreciation and recognition.
Check out the rich tunes of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Ella Fitzgerald's "Summertime."
