Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, author of How Women Mean Business and co-author of Why Women Mean Business, is the CEO of the consultancy 20-first, a company that helps corporations to gender balance their workplaces. Why would this appear in Classical Singer, addressed to singers and arts professionals, you may be wondering? Well, gender issues are really family issues, and changes in the corporate world will greatly affect our artistic world. It also helps us as entrepreneurs in the business of art and music to make better choices for our work-life balance.
Wittenberg-Cox works with leadership of organizations to gender balance their companies by first addressing two questions: Do they care enough to understand the issues to lead this? Do they think it is relevant or not?
Most people, especially younger generations (myself included) think that gender equity is not a problem anymore. But if we take a closer look, we aren’t really as fair as we think we are. Wittenberg-Cox notes that research done on recruiting shows gender bias is unconsciously present. She cites a study in the U.K. that shows that when screens were not placed in front of symphony players during auditions, more men were selected. When screens were used, the gender balance was more equal.
This is not surprising, given that particular instruments tend to have more gender imbalance. There are many more female singers than male, for example, and fewer female percussionists than male. Addressing the gender imbalances across the musical spectrum includes not just professional companies but conservatories and schools as well.
Every business wishes to recruit the best talent—it just makes sense economically. But why, then, do businesses in nearly every industry recruit predominantly one gender or another? Wittenberg-Cox thinks much of it is logic. If we are unaware of it then, logically, there must not be a problem! She firmly believes that highlighting and addressing issues of gender balance in the media and the press will make a difference. Simply raising awareness allows leaders to make different choices.
Wittenberg-Cox, whose business is based in London and Paris, works worldwide. She has seen a great difference in approach in countries across the pond from the U.S.—countries with better gender balance have higher birth rates, for example (see the sidebar “Why Do Women Mean Business” on this page). In the U.S., gender bias is especially strong. “It is an incredibly aggressive culture that is very masculine and becoming more masculine,” Wittenberg-Cox writes. Gender roles are “more entrenched instead of less,” she adds. She also notes that people need to be accountable worldwide for any gender bias. In the U.S., much legislation exists to protect equal rights in the workplace, but how often is that enforced in artistic fields? And how much are singers talking about it and its relevance to their daily work life?
Some of it can start with parents. Ken Berg, director of the Birmingham Boys Choir for over 30 years and composer and conductor at major choral conventions including ACDA, has been aware of a drop-off in participation after voices change. And in recent years, a more disturbing trend has emerged: it is more difficult to recruit boys to sing in the first place. “Recruitment is getting harder and harder to do,” Berg says. “Getting boys (and families) to commit to our choir is hard work. There is so much competition for their attention and so few hours available in their day.” While Berg feels that this is partly due to a diminishing of importance of singing in our culture in general, he has noticed an emphasis on other activities over music as important for boys.
Berg’s perception confirms Wittenberg-Cox’s account of gender expectations becoming even more entrenched. It is less acceptable for boys to be singers socially. They are expected to participate in sports instead. Where this leads to is a dearth of men in professional singing and an overabundance of women (sorry, sopranos, I’m right there with you). How to fix this becomes an issue for music instructors at every level, as well as for parents. Someone must inform boys that this is a feasible career and that there is opportunity for them. “Too much of one gender does not serve anybody,” Wittenberg-Cox says. “Evenness improves quality all around.”
In the arts (and Wittenberg-Cox adds that film is the same), few people know that this gender bias and imbalance exists. In television, there are more and more female main characters and more female-oriented shows are being made, although the gender imbalance remains. Females accounted for 33 percent of all characters in the top 100 domestic grossing films, which is only a 5 percent increase from statistics released in 2002, according to a report by Martha M. Lauzen, PhD at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
Wittenberg-Cox thinks it is important to let young people know about this—otherwise, they won’t think about gender issues. She also notes how important it is to raise issues about balance rather than simply opportunity for more women (where the imbalance often occurs in corporate climate). Issues must be raised with men and in general. It is “better to talk about balance than promoting one gender or another. Until it is talked about, it is a non-issue.” When balance is out of whack (e.g., 60/40 or 80/20 in either direction), then there is a problem.
This is an essential question to raise in our university programs, where female voices are predominant. Successful CEOs adopt balance-friendly policies and make those changes internally as well as publicly, according to Wittenberg-Cox. Statistics on gender balance are difficult to get—Wittenberg-Cox describes them as “PR bombshells”—no one wants to give out the information that could potentially harm their public image. Her company researches public record.
For classical singers, that information comes from OPERA America. The sidebar on this page shows the most performed operas in America, the most performed operas composed by Americans, and the breakdowns of number of roles for males and females in these operas.
It’s well known that there are generally more male roles than female roles in operas. It becomes frustrating when there are innumerably more female singers auditioning for those fewer roles. The dialogue for gender balance must include composers as well as singers and artistic staff of opera companies. Wittenberg-Cox recommends trying to enlist groups of organizations to reach out to women composers and composers writing operas with numerous female characters. She suggests positive rewards for organizations that are successful and work on gender balance rather than shaming those that don’t. Conservatories that have excellent male student recruitment can publicize and advertise that as a strength. It will draw singers of both genders and serve as a model for other educational institutions.
Another aspect of gender balance is the funding for our art. The wealth structure in the U.S. is changing. “Almost 45 percent of millionaires in the U.S. are women,” says Wittenberg-Cox. Opera companies rely on donors to function. While women donors are common, what is changing is that more women are acquiring these fortunes through their own businesses, rather than that of their husbands, which may change the means and amount that they donate to opera. Whether opera companies have thought about this changing dynamic and how it will affect them is something that will draw attention over the coming years.
For singers, “the younger you go, the more people think this issue is totally history and that it won’t affect their career,” observes Wittenberg-Cox. For women in singing, the market is currently highly competitive and oversaturated. For men, there are more opportunities. These issues must be made clear to students and young singers so that they can realistically plan the steps they need to take for individual success. “Anyone who thinks gender politics aren’t relevant will be disappointed,”
Wittenberg-Cox warns. “It’s better to be informed than not.”
