Conducting Motherhood
Despite the increasing presence of contemporary women orchestral conductors, their experiences have been met with a peculiar silence. Given that they are still a small minority, in a mostly male-dominated field, their stories have scarcely permeated the profession’s discourses. This article directly stems from author's ethnographic research and focuses on a theme that was explored in the larger study: conducting motherhood. In the article author interweaves recent feminist literature on mothering with the women conductors' stories of pregnancy, child rearing and childlessness to examine how the conducting profession appears to consider women's private experiences with motherhood incompatible with their public lives on the podium. While the group of mothers in her study were certainly in the minority – of the seventeen women whom she interviewed, only five are mothers – their experiences are still very telling.
- Creator
- Bartleet , Brydie-Leigh