Women's Issues and Music Therapists

Abstract

A survey on women's issues was sent to 1,870 women music therapists living in the United States and Canada. The response rate was 45%. Structured and open-ended questions were asked about personal, work, and family concerns, role models, sex bias, career advice and feminist psychotherapy. The most prominent concerns were inadequate salary, lack of advancement opportunity, leisure time, and prestige. Of those surveyed, 91% felt that sex bias and discrimination had an impact in women's liver. Many women consider music therapy to be a rewarding profession, but 44% would not recommend it as a career choice. The unstructured questions elicited strong feelings. The ideas eloquently expressed in the women's own words provide an opportunity to begin an ongoing dialogue.