Where are the female composers? Human capital and gender inequality in music history

Karol Borowiecki, Martin Kristensen and Marc Law

European Economic Review, 2025, vol. 171, issue C

Abstract: Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Frédéric Chopin are household names, but few will recognize Francesca Caccini, Elisabeth Lutyens or Amy M. Beach, who are among the top-10 female composers of all time. Why are female composers overshadowed by their male counterparts? Using novel data on over 17,000 composers who represent the entire history of western classical music, we conduct the first quantitative exploration of the gender gap among composers. We use the length of a composer’s biographical entry in Grove Music Online to measure composer prominence, and shed light on the determinants of the gender gap with a focus on the development of composers’ human capital through families, teachers, and institutionalized music education. The evidence suggests that parental musical background matters for composers’ prominence, that the effects of teachers vary by the gender of the composer but the effects of parents do not, and while musician mothers and female teachers are important, they do not narrow the gender gap in composer prominence. We also find that the institutionalization of music education in conservatories increases the relative prominence of female composers.

Keywords: Gender gap; Human capital; Parental investment; Music education; Music history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J16 J24 N30 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:171:y:2025:i:c:s0014292124002228

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104893

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