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Gender Inequalities and Higher Music Education: Comparing the UK and Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2017

Sam de Boise
Sam de Boise*
Affiliation:
School of Music and Theatre, Örebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, Sweden702 81sam.deboise@oru.se
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Abstract

Whilst the impact of gender inequalities has been studied in relation to music education, especially in the UK, relatively little has been written about their impact on higher music education (HME). This article compares data on HME programs and courses, in the UK and Sweden, from 2010 to 2014. It looks at similarities and differences in the numbers of men and women who applied to HME subjects, compared to those who were offered a place on their chosen program or course, in both nations. Through this it demonstrates that whilst a Swedish HME appears to show less institutional discrimination against women, there are still similar transnational divisions in men's and women's HME subject choices. However the article uses these data to build on existing critiques around a need for intersectional understandings of gender inequalities, before arguing that a critique of neoliberalism is essential to tackling gender inequalities in HME.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 23 - 41
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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