Women, Music and Leadership

Women, Music and Leadership offers a wide-ranging survey of women in musical leadership and their experiences, highlighting women’s achievements and considering how they negotiate the challenges of the leadership space in music. Women have always participated in music as performers, teachers, composers and professionals, but remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Covering women’s leadership across a wide variety of roles and musical genres, this book addresses women in classical music, gospel, blues, jazz, popular music, electronic music and non-Western musical contexts, and considers women working as composers, as conductors, and in music management and the music business. Each chapter includes several case studies of women’s careers, exploring their groundbreaking contributions to music and the challenges they faced as leaders. Connecting management theory and leadership research with feminist musicology, this book paints a new picture of women’s major contributions as leaders in music and their ongoing struggles for equity. It will be relevant to students and scholars in arts and music management, as well as all those studying music, gender or leadership, and women music professionals.

1. The Context for Women in Musical Leadership 2. Women and Musical Composition 3. Women Conductors 4. Women in Classical Instrumental and Vocal Music Performance 5. Women in Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Motown 6. Women in Popular Music 7. Women in Electronic Music 8. Women in non-Western Musical Contexts 9. Women in the Music Industry

Helen Rusak has held high-profile positions as an arts manager and musician and was most recently Senior Lecturer and course coordinator for Arts Management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University. In 2023 she was appointed adjunct in Arts Management at the University of South Australia.