This PhD thesis focuses on Czechoslovak women composers during the state socialist period (1948-1989), a topic so far overlooked by previous research. It seeks to identify the reasons for the strikingly low representation of women composers in musical culture of the time. Records show that the membership of the Czechoslovak composers’ unions included a mere 11 women composers over the whole four socialist decades, compared to hundreds of men. The thesis analyses the reasons why the communist regime, with its official agenda of gender equality, failed to provide women composers with equal opportunities to pursue a musical career, and discusses the gender-specific obstacles that women still encountered despite what was officially proclaimed or believed. This project combines archival research (archive of the composers’ union, period press, and women composers’ legacies), and oral history (interviews with the composers or their bereaved). This combined approach allows me to identify key issues related to women composers’ position and experience in the socialist state – the gender-blindness of official institutions, persisting patriarchal attitudes as reflected in contemporary media, the impact of the socialist double-burden of housework and fulltime employment on women’s opportunities for creative work, and the widespread prejudice against female compositional abilities. The research also discovered the existence of several initiatives directed at the improvement of women composers’ situation within what is usually understood as a state-controlled space where no feminist movements could survive or emerge. The final chapter, focusing on the impact of communist ideology and censorship on women composers’ music, contributes to the wider question of artistic oppression within the Eastern Bloc. My research seeks to contribute to the wider question of the modes of women composers’ participation in the public sphere outside of the Western capitalist context, and to enhance our understanding of the experience of women composers in the socialist and post-socialist world.
| Date of Award | 1 May 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Catherine Haworth (Main Supervisor) & Robert Adlington (Co-Supervisor) |
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