ABSTRACT
During the period covered by silent cinema in Britain, women music teachers consistently outnumbered men by almost four to one. Music tuition was considered an acceptable career for women newly emerging into the labour market in Edwardian Britain, and these women were also able to transfer their skills into the rapidly expanding cinema music profession. During the period of silent cinema in Britain, women were crucial to the business of cinema exhibition, and the employment of women musicians was part of this feminisation of the cinema space. Women cinema musicians were also part of a shift towards the feminisation of the cinema space. Cinema’s emergence at the end of the nineteenth century coincided with tumultuous social and economic changes, particularly in gender and class relations. The year 1911 also saw the formation of the Society of Women Musicians, partly in response to the gender disparity in music composition, conducting, and direction.
