On March 8, 1914, women all over Europe rallied against the pending war and requested the right to vote. March 8 was declared International Women’s Day and has become a global day of recognition and celebration. Many countries treat it as a national holiday, and in some places people give gifts to their wives and mothers similar to Mother’s Day. Much has changed in the last 100 years and some argue that the battles have been won for women’s rights. Unfortunately, there are still many instances in which women earn less than their male counterparts, and the number of women in business and politics is still not equal. Similarly, there are a fair number of successful female jazz instrumentalists in the contemporary jazz scene and role models for every instrument. But in reality, participation is still in the single digits and many doors stay closed to women.
In my second post for NewMusicBox, I’ll trace some of the history of women in jazz. The above pictures are the covers of a variety of jazz history books commonly used in the classroom. Please take a moment and compare the pictures. Now formulate a description of “the jazz icon.” How does the picture below fit the description?
By Monika Herzig on March 10, 2014, Article extract from NewMusicBox
