GENDER AND THE SMT Report on gender statistics within the Society for Music Theory

Overview  SMT gender statistics: membership, conference participation and journal publication  Challenges to SMT  Review of gender imbalances in other societies

Statistics  Sources: Society records, archived newsletters   Statistical significance of percentages  Record of gender in the SMT

SMT Membership  Overall membership  Comparison to AMS and SEM  Membership in administrative structures

AMS and SEM Membership  SMT: average 28% female  AMS: average 46% female  SEM: average 50% female

Female Administration  Ad hoc committees and ex officio members excluded  3 categories: Executive Board Editorial Boards All other committees

SMT Conference Participation  Female participation relative to female membership: Proposal submissions Acceptances --> representation  Female vs Male acceptance rates

SMT Journal Participation  Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory Online  Female participation relative to female membership: Article submissions Acceptances --> representation  Female vs Male acceptance rates

Conclusions  Female membership rates in the society have declined over the past seven years, from 31% to 27%  Administration Relative to female membership rates, women are over-represented on some SMT committees; Women are under-represented on SMT editorial boards.

Conclusions (cont.)  Conference participation Relative to female membership rates, women are under-represented in proposal submissions and paper presentations at SMT annual meetings; Rates of acceptance for paper proposals by women are comparable to those by men.

Conclusions (cont.)  Journal publication Relative to female membership rates, women are under-represented in journal submissions and in publications, both in MTS and MTO; Rates of acceptance for article submissions by women are significantly below those of men.

Challenges for SMT  Raise the membership rates of women by attracting more women to the Society;  Include more women on editorial boards;  Encourage women to submit paper proposals for annual meetings;  Encourage women to submit journal articles for publication;  Examine reasons why journal acceptance rates for women are significantly lower than those for men.

ACLS Strategies  Relying heavily on the society’s leadership to achieve the objective of gender balance;  Electing more women to governing council;  Deliberately promoting women as president of the Society;  Appointing women to influential committees and boards within the Society, including the program committee and the nominating committee;

ACLS Strategies (cont.)  Insisting there be at least one women on all program panels;  Introducing new prizes specifically for women;  Exploring ways to include childcare at conferences;  “Aggressively” recruiting women at graduate student level.