This thesis is, in part, an inquiry into my present position in this world: I am a
young woman studying music in Chicago, preparing for a career in teaching and
conducting. While I value the graduate education I am now receiving, I find myself
longing for a mentor; for another woman who has spent her life as a conductor, someone
willing to share, for my benefit, her experiences and her insights into the world of
professional orchestral and choral music performance.
The world is a different place for women and for men (Stanley and Wise, 1993).
Research into women’s experiences over the past twenty years has helped to balance
research agendas which have traditionally studied men’s experiences, as if those
represented the entire human race. For these reasons, I have chosen to center my thesis
on the life experiences of an outstanding woman conductor who worked in Chicago
during the second half of the twentieth century, and changed the music world’s view of
women as conductors: Margaret Hillis (1921-1998).