Women in a Men’s Collective in the 1970s and 1980s. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra as an Example

0550084 - ÚSD 2022 RIV HR eng J - Journal Article
Marková, Lucie
Women in a Men’s Collective in the 1970s and 1980s. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra as an Example.
History in Flux. Roč. 3, č. 3 (2021), s. 177-197. ISSN 2706-414X
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA19-09594S
Institutional support: RVO:68378114
Keywords : Czech philharmonic orchestra * oral history * female employment
OECD category: History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)
Method of publishing: Open access
https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/389025

For many years, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was an exclusively male organization despite the increasing number of women in Czechoslovakia joining the workforce. This paper, which is based on oral history interviews with members of the orchestra will attempt to identify the reasons why almost no women were employed there during the period of Czechoslovak Socialism and under what kind of conditions the only two female members worked. Through interpretation and depth analysis of the oral history interview with one of the two female musicians employed by the Philharmonic before 1989, the paper will primarily map the issue of how women reconciled work and family life, which was considered one of the main obstacles for female musicians, while also taking into consideration the Philharmonic’s prestige and its frequent tours abroad. The acquired experience of a female musician is interpreted within the context of male narratives and is embedded in the study’s theoretical framework. This framework is defined by the available research on women’s emancipation and transformations of the gender order of the Czechoslovak socialist society, as well as research comparing the career patterns of musicians (both female and male) and the inclusion of women in the world’s leading symphony orchestras.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0325937