Comparative Country Analysis on Leadership in Music Employability

Abstract

The NEWS in MAP project aims to develop a fourteen-week module for music students that will cultivate the knowledge and skills relating to self-leadership, while also providing opportunities for students to apply what they learn in practical contexts. The skills and knowledge at the core of the module will be associated with the enhanced employability of music graduates. The module aims to help students to develop competencies, both theoretical and in a practical sense, that will support music students to become entrepreneurs who are responsible for the success of their own careers.

Among the many objectives of the project, NEWS in MAP seeks to help students who identify as women to understand their suitability for leadership positions. The expected outcomes include an increase in both the participation of women at all levels of decision-making and further opportunities for women to assume leadership roles. NEWS in MAP aims to offer women the opportunity to develop a skill set that helps them find, create and sustain rewarding work across the career lifespan. Accordingly, IO2 is concerned with the accumulation of data related to gender and leadership in music as it seeks to understand the impact of gender on the acquisition of leadership positions in music. This research approaches the question from two different perspectives: the student perspective and the perspective of women in formal positions of leadership in music.

The results will help to inform the development of the module at the heart of NEWS in MAP. It will provide data and insights that will allow for the integration of a gender perspective into the materials developed by NEWS in MAP. Using the results of this IO, NEWS in MAP can ensure that the module meets the needs of students who identify as women and that the interventions incorporate an explicit gender dimension. Whilst the research here focuses on opportunities for women, much of this work can readily be applied to musicians and students who have minority gender identities (non binary, trans and queer students, for example) and more work should be done in future to include their voices and make space for their experiences.