A recent report by the campaign group Feminista UK reveals that only 1.6% of the conductors and 4.1% of the composers featured in this year's Proms season will be women. Does this represent the classical music sector as a whole? And whether it does or not, should the BBC be making greater efforts to increase the representation of female conductors and composers?

Sadly, those stats do reflect the position of women in classical music in general. Why are there more male soloists? How many top-flight female concert pianists can you name, and how many men? It's like other "top jobs" - surgeons, bankers, cabinet members..... Is it because women can't hack the pace (doubtful) or is it because they are taking time out of their careers to raise families (probably). In any event, I do not think it is solely the BBC's responsibility to promote women conductors, composers and soloists, but it would be good if they did at least make some kind of gesture. Perhaps a few all-women Proms?

doesn't that risk tokenism where decisions are made for the sake of something, rather than for artistic purposes? isn't it better to address the root of the problem, i.e. making sure that women have equal opportunities in music earlier in their careers, than trying to retroactivally fix the issue? all-women political shortlists come to mind...

then again, if you address a problem from all angles...

Some thoughts from Tom Service - 'Where are all the women conductors? Everywhere apart from the UK'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2010/jan/22/women-conductors-julia-jones

Composer Ethel Smyth, mentioned in the previous post, is worthy of further comment.
The Proms archive also reveals that she personally conducted 17 performances of her own music in 14 Proms between 1913 and 1933. Amongst her many other compositions, Wikipedia states that she composed the tune for the song of the suffrage movement,'The March of the Women'. Jailed for two months as one of the 108 suffragettes who broke windows of anti-suffrage politicians, she was visited in Holloway Prison by Thomas Beecham, who found suffragettes marching around the quadrangle singing that song, while Smyth leaned out of a window - conducting them with a toothbrush.

At the risk of sounding a little facetious, when I hear a complaint about the lack of female conductors, I am tempted to compare it to the relative lack of female front-line soldiers. That is, is there not another question that needs to be asked first, to wit: whether the traditional, self-evidently male-dominated, profession of conducting itself needs to be reconceived? One does not need to read Lebrecht's 'Maestro Myth' to feel that there is something troubling, if not anachronistic, about the present-day 'economy' of top-flight maestros.

Are they (at least traditionally conceived) something we should be encouraging at all, whether male or female?

Here's one worth a mention:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/music-features/a-score-to-be-settled-1.1036580

Thanks for the link, Alexia - yes indeed,  :)  Jessica Cottis, Assistant Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.