Women In Textbooks Essay

In ongoing discussions of women’s role in music, a controversial issue has been whether women should be more represented in music textbooks. On the one hand, some argue that women haven’t made enough significant contributions to music to warrant being prominent in textbooks and literature . On the other hand, some argue that it would be inaccurate to portray women in textbooks as it wouldn’t have been seen as important at the time . A final viewpoint, suggest that women have made significant contributions and innovations in music and should thus be more prominent in textbooks and literature . Anyone familiar with history in general has long known that women had no right and were seen as less equal to men. This is why the proponents of the second way of thinking believes that portraying something different in textbooks …show more content…
In summary, the issue is whether women are portrayed “accurately”, in a diminished capacity, or in a more prominent role. My own view is that even though historically women’s contribution to music hasn’t been fully recognized as women didn’t have rights and were seen as lesser than men which lead many people to believe it would be a misrepresentation if women have a more prominent representation in textbooks, women should have a more prominent representation in music textbooks as women have made great contributions and innovations to the field of music and historically women have been just as musically inclined if not more so then some of their male counterparts with whom we study in music textbooks. Though I concede that this does not convey what really happened in history as women had to take a back seat, I still maintain that women were taking on the same musical task as men such as learning instruments, composing, educating, facilitating,