Gender roles in Music: Romania
(https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Inside+gender+domination+in+Romanian+contemporary+Gipsy+songs.-a0397454310)
(https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2022/country/RO)
Romani people originated in northern India and now live in Europe. Roma society is largely patriarchal, with men and women having distinct gender roles. Women mostly handle childcare and housework. Women are seen as inferior to men and Romania only scores 53.7 out of 100 points in EIGE's Gender Equality Index in 2022. A 100 means that the country has reached full equality between men and women. This patriarchal society also applies to their music. Specifically, I want to take a look at some contemporary Gipsy (Romani music) songs. This is a popular and widespread form of music in Romania.
In Romania, men govern the music scene, where their perceptions, attitudes, and biases may be amplified and passed on to the rest of society. Women are often permitted to project the image that men have constructed for them, doing and saying what men want or want them to. Typically, women are projected as highly decorative and mostly seen as sexual objects. Men write, direct, produce, and advertise the majority of the cultural items they present to the public. Only independent female performers, such as Carmen Serban, who performs her own songs, take a feminine perspective. Roughly 90% of songs written are done so by men.
Gender roles in Music: US
(https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/research/women-music-climbing-charts-equality-slow-process#:~:text=In%202022%2C%2030%25%20of%20artists,to%20every%201%20female%20artist.)
https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/research/women-music-climbing-charts-equality-slow-process#:~:text=In%202022%2C%2030%25%20of%20artists,to%20every%201%20female%20artist.
There are 3.5 male artists for every female artist in America. In 2022, 30% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart were female, a rise from 23.3% in 2021. While this isn't nearly an equal chance for women in the music industry, it is significantly above what Romanian women face. The US has a score of about 78 compared to Romania's score of 53 on gender equality. Songwriting in the US is a male-dominated field with the number of women in the industry actually decreasing from 2021 to 2022. The article also states that many songs that have women contributing do not list their contributions. Another area of struggle is producers. Only 3.4 of producers were women in 2022.
Gender roles in Music: India
(https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/gender-equality)
(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/music/music-events/theres-no-gender-discrimination-in-indian-classical-music-aditya-kalyanpur/articleshow/68300766.cms)
On a lighter note, India. Different genders present different roles in India. Gender roles play a large part in which careers you can pursue due to "deeply entrenched patriarchal views, norms, traditions, and structures." This is true for almost every industry other than Indian Classical Music. Aditya states that "Artistes have survived only on the basis of their merit. In fact, even the thought of treating anyway differently based on gender, case, community, or religion never arises."
Thank you for comparing and contrasting these three cultures and how they view gender in music. It was interesting to learn about the statistics, it makes it easier to see the big picture. Even though the cultures are so different, we all somehow have similar experiences with music and the music industry.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the comparison between the three different cultures; it really helped to put everything in perspective! I find it really interesting that there isn't much sexism found within Indian classical music, especially considering the culture's emphasis on gender roles.
ReplyDeleteI did research as well for my gender and music blog but it was mainly on the USA because this seem more of a broad research and gives me of a universal understanding of gender inequality and the interesting non american classical music was actually something Ive never heard of before
ReplyDeleteI thought it was cool how you added the comparison between the different cultures. It really added some insight on how they each view gender in music. I also found it crazy how only 3.4% of producers were women in 2022.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy to me to think how drastic the differences in different cultures can be based on the same topic. It's wild to think that different cultures can respond so negatively to something solely based on gender, it's almost dehumanizing and degrading in a way.
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