The Music, Gender and Education Conference was organised jointly by Women in Music and Bristol University and held as a weekend event with contributors from a wide field of working contexts and interests in music education. The group of papers which follows is indicative of the breadth of standpoints and approaches to research which were represented.

The article explores reasons for the absence of women from the world of professional music making. The processes of women's music making are examined, especially oral transmission, communal creation and ownership, its relation to everyday living, and holistic approaches to its role in education. These are illustrated by examples drawn from composers such as Hildegard of Bingen and Clara Schumann, and traditional sources, together with education and good practice in a variety of areas.

In our efforts to break the vicious circle of gender inequality in the culture of the classroom, we need to pay attention particularly to the implications for music of the statutory requirements for Equal Opportunities in schools, and also to those elements of teacher training that will equip musicians to deal with this aspect of the curriculum. The author emphasises the importance of teaching from a feminist standpoint, wherever possible using examples of women's music for analysis and for historical and ethnomusicological studies. Possibly the most problematic area – and one that now clearly needs research – is the identification of a female aesthetic in the repertoire of music for study and performance.

The essay sets the context and identifies some possibilities this music educator/feminist theorist currently finds in music, whilst applying the framework of sociologist Dorothy Smith's standpoint feminism to music as constituted within the ideology of particular institutions and practices. Contributions of feminist musicology, in terms of documentation of women's experience in and with music, women's status, and perspectives of feminist music criticism, are summarized. Considering these contributions and framework as a basis to this contextualized critical stance leads to further questions. For example, just as feminist musicology provides music education with the possibilities of new content, is it not likely that feminist criticism in music education could assist musicology in coming to terms with making musical sense, collectively, through cultural institutions? In beginning to work with such a question of criticism, it is suggested that institutional issues of power, as played out through who teaches and sexual harassment of student, are evident and require attention.

Many women have led successful lives as professional musicians, but their contributions to our cultural heritage have largely been ignored. This article describes a project, at the University of Huddersfield, designed to redress the balance by systematically presenting the case for the work of women composers to be recognised in the University's History of Music courses and Compositional Studies lectures.

Amongst the most fascinating discoveries made in recent years was the identification of the Egyptian songstress Iti (2450 BC) as the first woman composer to have been mentioned by name in musical history. This paper examines the status of professional women musicians in Ancient Egypt, their role in society and their contribution to various aspects of life and death. Reviewing the range of styles, practices and variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles in which women took part as composers, performers and instructors, the author traces the development of a musical tradition which would appear to throw light upon some long standing prejudices, and to have important implications for music education in multi-cultural schools today.

This article seeks to create further professional debate on the practical, political and historical significance of girls' experience in music education, and to suggest possible ways for change.

A secondary schools research project on Music and Gender is outlined and work in one project school where language (especially the words in songs) was the focus is discussed in detail.

Whilst public music-making is generally perceived as largely a male domain, the perception of school music is that, at all levels, it is dominated by females. This article describes the author's attempt to find out how A-level music students see themselves in relation to their past experiences as musicians, their current work for A-level, and their potential musical future. The aim of the research was to identify differences that might exist between the perceptions of girls and boys in the sample, and between those at state-maintained and private schools.

Apart from generating a psychological and autobiographical profile for the cohort as a whole, results from the students' responses were analysed by using a quantitative statistical measure. Then the autobiographies of the constituents of these groups were examined, and this threw up interesting and unlooked for similarities within them.

This paper considers the effects of children's gender associations on their preferences for musical instruments, and questions whether the limited range of instrumental selection made by boys can be regarded as a result of such associations.

The research project was devised to investigate the responses of infant school children to male and female musicians. The findings indicated that instrumental preferences were influenced by gender associations which could be lessened by providing positive role models. Whereas girls were more able to cross over gender divisions than boys, boys had a narrower range of interests in instruments. It was shown that the provision of an opposite gendered role model helped to overcome the associations made with particular instruments.

Sexual difference expresses itself not only in the musical practices and tastes of boys and girls in schools, but also in teachers' discourse about pupils' musicality. The following article explores this discourse through interpreting the findings of some questionnaire research, which was intended to tap teachers' common-sense and sometimes unspoken assumptions about gender, music and education. A considerable amount of both overt and implicit consensus between teachers is revealed. Questions are raised about the implications of such a consensus, both for the musical education of children, and for the musical roles of men and women. This article was originally written and published as a Research Report in the London University Institute of Education.

Music making in Africa has been, and is, an essential aspect of living. The philosophy and process of music making in South African schools bares no relevance to this idea. The present situation is that South African music educators are propagating western music education methods, while so-called ‘western’ music educators are turning to Africa to find answers to their perplexing problems. This paradoxical situation highlights the importance of evolving a philosophy and process of intercultural education through music for South Africa which draws upon research into music making in Africa.

The third biennial British Music Educators' Conference, ‘New Skills for a New Era’, organised by the UK Council for Music Education and Training, was held at Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, in July 1993. One of the conference days focused on 'Managing New Forms of Provision of Support Services'. This report is a collation of notes from speakers, whose contributions are included, as they spoke, in the first person and flipchart notes from participants' discussion groups.