'I couldn't touch the piano for years': Piano students at Utah State describe a culture of sexism

[TexasTowelie]

‘I couldn’t touch the piano for years’: Piano students at Utah State University describe a culture of sexism, discrimination and favoritism


Tonya Pruhs recalls taking off her engagement ring before her piano lessons at Utah State University, fearing she’d be shunned by teachers who routinely said women weren’t serious musicians once they were married.

Rachel Speedie passed up offers at prestigious conservatories to accept a scholarship at USU — and then had to fly home to Nevada to train with her high school teacher when faculty refused to work with her.

Carrie Day Franklin slogged through nearly a decade at USU as a mom with young children — but left without a degree because she was denied a chance to play a senior recital.

USU launched an investigation into its piano department last month after a student criticized how the school handled her 2009 rape report against a teacher. But students have been complaining for years of a broad pattern of favoritism, sexism and emotional abuse by faculty.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2018/03/31/i-couldnt-touch-the-piano-for-years-piano-students-at-utah-state-university-describe-a-culture-of-sexism-discrimination-and-favoritism/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I understand too well.

My grandmother studied classical piano, preparing herself for a career as a performer. Her father promoted her dreams. She was enrolled in The Juilliard School of Music (when it was The Singer School) in the early 1920s.

She met my grandfather and made the choice to marry him and teach private lessons while raising a family.

And when I was a music major, there was an undercurrent of sexism -- and this was at an independent ALL WOMEN'S college (Sweet Briar College)! The chairman openly mocked a woman who wasn't a major. She wanted to learn how to play the piano solely for the purpose of "amusing herself". No wonder there was only two majors when I graduated.

By comparison, biology/chemistry/psychology majors had relatively no sexism. Music majors didn't get enough respect from within -- with one exception: one professor was a serious piano teacher. She could be heard practicing in her studio on campus at 3:00 a.m. and she demanded that you work hard in her classes. She changed my entire perspective of dedication and perseverance. She told me I could do a clarinet recital -- only if I was ready to work for it.

[janterry]

2. I had a college professor

who welcomed all of the male political science students, and said they needed to work hard - since they were there to become lawyers.

The women, he said - looking at us dismissively, were there to get their Mrs. degree.

This was in 1982

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I hear you. I graduated in 1979.

The college's tradition of The Ring Game didn't help to make students look like serious scholars. (You get engaged and literally wake up the president of the Senior Class. She then puts up notices that a Ring Game will be held in the Quadrangle at noon. At noon, a mob shows up and on a loop of pink-and-green ribbons, an engagement ring is attached. The ring goes around the circle, each person becoming an amateur gemologist, guessing the carat and the value. Around it goes a second time. A third time, faster and faster it is passed. Finally the "lucky girl" stops the ring, takes out scissors, cuts the ribbons, pops on the ring and "announces" her engagement.

I hated it. On graduation day, I wanted to mock them so badly with a "keyring game" where an ordinary key, painted pink and green on each side would be dangled from a similar circle of ribbon would be passed around, ending when someone cut the ribbon and announced "I'm moving in with Bob!" Never did it.

[janterry]

4. Oh, wow.

I think the sororities on campus did something like that. I transferred to another college and faced none of that anymore.

But my freshman year, the men did pass around a Pig Book (pictures of all of the freshman). I was thrilled to know that I never sent in my picture for that humiliation.

Until I opened it and saw my mother went behind my back and sent it in........I almost cried.

My daughter is just about to turn 16. I'm so glad she won't face (most) of this overt sexism. It was really terrible.

[exboyfil]

5. My wife called attention to an inequity at my alma mater

Purdue when I was back in the 1990s (I graduated in 1984). She had to go down at least one level of the Mechanical Engineering building to use the restroom. I guess I never really noticed.

The funny thing is that my daughter did not have that many more women students in her mechanical engineering classes than I did (she graduated in 2014).

[Staph]

6. There seems to be sexism in professional music generally.

It would be hard to deny that there was such a bias in the composition of orchestras. As late as 1970, the top five orchestras in the U.S. had fewer than 5% women. It wasn't until 1980 that any of these top orchestras had 10% female musicians. But by 1997 they were up to 25% and today some of them are well into the 30s. What is the source of this change? Have they added jobs? Have they focused on work that appeals to women?

The size of a major orchestra is quite stable; they all have around 100 musicians. Furthermore, the types of jobs do not change. The increase in the number of women cannot be attributed to a redistribution giving the orchestra fewer bassists — traditionally played by men — and more harpists — where more women are found.

In the 1970s and 1980s, orchestras began using blind auditions. Candidates are situated on a stage behind a screen to play for a jury that cannot see them. In some orchestras, blind auditions are used just for the preliminary selection while others use it all the way to the end, until a hiring decision is made.

Even when the screen is only used for the preliminary round, it has a powerful impact; researchers have determined that this step alone makes it 50% more likely that a woman will advance to the finals. And the screen has also been demonstrated to be the source of a surge in the number of women being offered positions.

https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/14/blind-auditions-orchestras-gender-bias