Gender and Networks of Success: The Case of Classical and Film Composers Restricted; Files & ToC
Park, Ju Hyun (Summer 2020)
Abstract
This dissertation examines the gender pay gap and social networks of musical composers to
address how gender still matters in the contemporary economy in which nonstandard work is
growing more common across occupations and industries. Composers can be seen emblematic of
contemporary labor markets in which precarious work abounds in that they have historically
been freelancers and continue to be so in the contemporary economy. Using data from a survey
on American composers in the non-profit ream by the Research Center for Arts and Culture at
Columbia University, my first chapter focuses on pay gaps between men and women composers
and how their social networks play out in practice. Among other things, I find that there is no
gender gap in income earned from composing, but a significant gap in income from all jobs. This
result indicates that men composers are better able to subsidize their composition work than are
women composers, and the social networks of women composers do not offset that difference.
Given the findings of the first chapter, I delve further into how the connections created by
composers and created by intermediary organizations matter for the career success of film and
classical music composers. I do this by analyzing two self-gathered datasets from the Internet
Movie Database (IMDb) and the League of American Orchestras, respectively, covering 2000 to
2009. In my second chapter, I focus on the collaboration network that occurred when filmscoring
composers worked with directors, screenwriters, and other composers on a particular
film. The results of this chapter show that, while having broad and gender-homophilous
connections helps men composers gain future opportunities to score film music, women
composers do not receive the same benefits from their connections. Finally, focusing on the field
of classical music, my third chapter examines the performance network that occurred when
classical composers are performed together by a given orchestra in each concert program. This
chapter reveals that women composers’ broad and repeated connections to other composers in a
concert—regardless of whether the performance partner is the “star” or the “canonical”
individual—benefit them in receiving more performances by orchestras than do such connections
for men composers. Based on the results from each chapter, I argue that the networks work
differently for men and women composers, as well as work differently across different stages of
career success. Overall, this dissertation has substantial implications for understanding how
gender, which has traditionally been important in influencing work conditions and outcomes, still
signifies different work outcomes between freelance workers in the contemporary economy.
Table of Contents
This table of contents is under embargo until 18 August 2026
About this Dissertation
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File download under embargo until 18 August 2026 | 2020-08-02 19:38:15 -0400 | File download under embargo until 18 August 2026 |
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