ABSTRACT
This chapter examines women's traditional involvement in music education and the effect of this on their subsequent careers. In any discussion of the education of women as a group it is vital to understand the historical perspective. As Wollstonecraft observes, the study of music was not a liberating or life-enhancing part of education; it served, rather, as a hobby to amuse in fact diverting women from any 'serious' study which would put them in direct competition with men. It is understandable that women first entered this university as music students, for artistic subjects with a 'feminine' reputation would obviously be the easiest starting points for women's participation in higher education. The analysis of the range of music examination results shows that while women have long predominated numerically in the secondary-level music examinations, they began to dominate music higher education only in the early 1980s.
