ABSTRACT
'Ladies not eligible' might aptly sum up the status of the majority of women who sought to enter the mainstream of professional musicians in nineteenth-century England. Although the ineligibility clause, printed in advertisements, applied only to organists seeking positions in some churches, its intent was far more widespread. Ladies, or gentlewomen, were by definition members of the upper and middle classes, so the matter was one both of gender and of social custom. In the second half of the nineteenth century musical women experienced a loosening of restrictions, but more as performers than as composers. Music as a profession was not highly valued in British society for either sex. Talent and an inclination to embrace their playing as a worship experience kept them there amid the vicissitudes of church politics, such as the policy that made 'ladies not eligible' for organist positions in some churches.
