“Counting” Progress: How Research Methodologies Shape Understandings of Gendered Employment in Australia's Professional Orchestras

Gender has traditionally been a key focus in efforts to address equity and diversity in orchestras and other musical settings. Since the mid-1990s, indicators and assessment of performance or achievement of gender equity have traditionally relied on quantitative methodologies that broadly “count” parity (and success) as when 50/50 employment between male and female musicians is achieved. Research and industry leaders have commonly pointed to such quantitative changes as reflective of positive cultural change. Yet, concerningly, despite purported gains made, persisting gender inequities have shown to be stubbornly persistent in classical music workplaces, and orchestras in particular. In this article we consider the utility and limitations of this methodological approach to assessing gender equity. To do so, we undertake a quantitative analysis of female-identifying musicians’ representation in orchestral workspaces in Australia, and map gender differences according to role, instruments, and leadership status based on available data. In so doing, we offer new insights into the gendered make-up of Australian orchestras and show the benefits and limitations of the “habit” of reliance on demographic data to assess gender representation. In particular, we argue that attending to how and what demographic data is collected and analyzed, and complementing quantitative modes of research in knowledge production, is critical to understanding persisting uneven power relations and unequal gender dynamics in musical spaces. We suggest that adopting a feminist intersectional approach to how gender equity is “counted” and constituted via research methods is critical to change ingrained research and workplace “habits” that otherwise sustain gender (and other) inequities in orchestral settings.