Expanding Opportunities for Women & Nonbinary Jazz Musicians
Summary
In 2024, the New School committed to bolster the inclusion of women and nonbinary musicians in jazz, reaching 100 people in the United States by mid-2026. To combat severe underrepresentation of women performers, students, and educators in the jazz arena, this initiative focuses on increasing women’s performance opportunities; establishing and expanding mentorship and internship opportunities; and increasing the percentage of women on the school’s jazz faculty with the aim of achieving parity. Through these efforts, the New School aims to increase visibility and representation of women in this field, while also investing in skill and leadership development.
Approach
This commitment will focus on three primary dimensions, aiming to create opportunities for New School students to work with organizations focusing on combating the barriers women and nonbinary people face in jazz education from 6th grade through college, thereby contributing to a better educational ecosystem at multiple levels, as well as coordinating and cross-pollinating strategies with key partner organizations. It will include:
Performance:
Expand Women In Jazz Organization (WIJO) International Women’s Day Jazz Jam in the Spring to include a fall event around Jazz & Gender themes. These events will be geared towards New School students, but also open to the public.
Create jam opportunities for students.
Develop a grant opportunity for funding for a student/faculty mixed group to support a performance or tour
Seek opportunities with our New School Gig Office for student performances at partner events. This will include gender parity when hiring student band leaders, providing
Mentorship:
Establish internships for students with El Paso Jazz Girls and WIJO Mentors. El Paso Jazz Girls is a non-profit organization providing cost free programming to girls and gender expansive youth in middle and high school, with a focus on composition, Latinx representation in jazz, and building a support system. Women in Jazz Organization (WIJO) Mentors is a mentorship program designed to connect women and non-binary jazz musicians in college with professionals in the jazz industry, focusing on career readiness, musical excellence, and community building.
Host a Jazz and Gender Summit of women-led jazz organizations to discuss how to make more progress in the field as partners. Initiatives to discuss can include Admissions recruitment practices, pooling resources to widely share diverse music theory example and repertoire databases, language use in teaching and syllabi standards for gender equity, and professional development opportunities for professionals seeking education employment.
Workforce development:
Increase the percentage of women on jazz faculty (currently at 32%) , striving to reach parity (50-50) and leading the way forward as the first institution of its kind to have true gender equality amongst jazz faculty. Recruitment will involve hearing course pitches, attending national education events like the Jazz Education Network Conference, and word of mouth and suggestions from current strong faculty members.
Action Plan
2024
August – Establish internships with El Paso Jazz Girls and the Women In Jazz Organization. Get student interns registered for their Fall 2024 semester internships
October – Begin planning Women’s Day Jam and one other Jazz and Gender Series event for Spring 2025
November – Host one jam session for students
2025
January – Promote New School Alsop Award (grant for current students to develop an entrepreneurial project) opportunity for students to use toward a project that addresses jazz gender equity. Continue internships for Spring semester
February – Begin 2025 – 2026 academic year planning with a focus on faculty gender parity. Recruit new faculty members for Lessons roster, ensemble, and classroom teaching.
March – Host Women’s day jam with WIJO
April – Last Jazz and Gender series event for the year
Summer – Start planning for Jazz and Gender summit to happen March 2026
Fall – Continue initiatives started 2024
2026
Spring – Continue initiatives started in 2025
March – Host Jazz and Gender Summit
Background
According to research done by Dr. Ariel Alexander, the top three reasons girls drop out of jazz education in K-12 settings are the masculine image of jazz, gender stereotypes of instruments, and dominating and competitive settings (The Routledge Companion for Women and Musical Leadership, 2024) . In professional settings there continues to be a lack of gender equity in jazz performance, composition, and education. In an extensive research project, journalist Lara Pelligrinli revealed that from 2007 – 2019, women-led/co-led jazz projects never ranged above 20% out of the top NPR 50 albums of the year, and in some years was 0%. Additionally amongst the top 50 albums between 2017 – 2019, the majority had no women in the band (Equal at last Women in Jazz by the Numbers, 2021) . There is clearly a lack of diversity in professional settings which stems from the lack of diversity in educational settings.
Some organizations and initiatives addressing these issues in the professional sphere, include We Have Voice Collective, Women in Jazz Organization, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M3) , Keychange, Key of She Jazz, The Woodshed Network, and New Music USA’s Next Jazz Legacy. In the educational spheres, some organizations include Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, El Paso Jazz Girls, and Jazz Girls Days around the globe. The New School aims to leverage their connections with these organizations to create partnerships and address gender equity challenges at The New School for the student body, faculty, and staff.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Bringing greater awareness to The New School’s work to invite other partners into the process would greatly benefit from media support and financial resources. For the Jazz and Gender summit, having media support to highlight the work of each partnering organization will be crucial to have bigger conversations about jazz and gender equity work but also to help share actionable items to other universities, organizations, and industry venues at large. Financial support could help subsidize transportation, housing, and registration costs as needed., The New School’s faculty and staff have started and participated in a wide variety of initiatives, organizations, and have a wealth of personal professional experience to address issues of gender discrimination in the jazz industry. They can help provide insight, best practices, and expertise that may be helpful in other fields.