Book Review: Howe, Sondra Wieland. Women Music Educators in the United States: A History

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Howe, Sondra Wieland Women Music Educators in the United States: A History, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2014. xxvi + 337 pp. Index. ISBN 978-0-8108-8847-0, $64.35; E-book, ISBN 978-0-8108-8848-7, $59.99 (hardcover). Music education scholars have long lamented the dearth of historical research about female music educators. This book is the long-overdue historical survey of women's teaching, learning, and leadership in American music education. Dr. Sondra Howe gives us a carefully researched and fascinating history of music education in the United States from the perspective of women's contributions to our field. This clearly written historiography illuminates stories of some of the unsung individual women and groups of women of all ages who participated in music education in formal institutionalized schools, in the military, and in community organizations, as well as informal home and community groups. Howe was mindful to include topics that were inclusive of many communities and people. Topics range widely among geographical locations, race, class, professional/ amateur musicians, public/private schools, and private and public spaces. Included are numerous mentions of women's contributions to publishing, the evolution of public music education from piano lessons in the parlor to founding university schools of music, and their scholarly contributions as journal editors and authors. There is myriad evidence of women composing, women adapting methodologies for curricula, and women launching and administrating community music clubs and professional women's orchestras. Setting her book squarely in the contexts of history of education, women's history, musicology, and feminist and gender issues, Howe organized her book into four parts: Early American Music Education (to 1860); Civil War and the Late Nineteenth Century (1860-1900); Twentieth Century through World War II (1900-1945); and Since World War II (1945-Today). In each section, there are chapters organized either by broad historical theme (e.g., Colonial and Revolutionary America) or by music education topics (e.g., Music Supervisors in the Public Schools). Using a presentation similar to the historical topics of music education history books that have preceded hers, Howe offers perspectives of women music educators and their contributions in these areas. Howe's writing offers the profession of musical education a long needed complementary history of music education in the United States. The book has a postlude, an extensive bibliography that anyone interested in music education and women's studies would be thankful for, an index, information about the author, a list of illustrations, as well as thirty-nine photographs. In addition to her broad range of topics, Howe shares with her readers the research questions she considered in constructing her book and recommends that others consider these questions when investigating women's contributions to music teaching and learning. It is rare to encounter an author who carefully models what others could consider when engaging in their own historical research. Howe uses tables, figures, statistics, and photographs to illuminate the ubiquitous contributions made by women to American music education. Howe's evidence is a stark reminder of the hundreds of female voices that have been concealed until the present day. She notes that in the 1870s in Boston, women were doing all the classroom teaching in the primary schools, almost all the teaching in the grammar schools, and more than half the teaching in the high school. In one instance, music teachers were paid more than other teachers in the school, sometimes double the amount. Most impressive is Howe's detailed research and writing on women's music education in Antebellum America (1790-1860). She discusses women's extraordinary contributions to nineteenth-century music education as she writes that women played a dominant role in American music. …