Women Jazz Instrumentalists in Turkey within the Context of Gender

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 34 - 55, 30.06.2020

Deniz İlbi , Esra Karaol

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.703748

Abstract

In this work, women jazz musicians in Turkey have been examined within the gender studies context. The purpose of this research, of which its theoretical frame was formed with a socio-musicological approach, via female musicians who are active in jazz music in Turkey, is to research and form a descriptive analysis by asking questions, such as: how gender roles affect women's careers, what steps female musicians have to go through in a sector dominated by men in order to be seen and which roles are attributed to women in jazz.
Due to the fact that women jazz musicians who play instruments are a minority, the scope of the subject has been limited to ‘women jazz instrumentalists in Turkey’, and in-depth interviews were conducted with selected sources within this context. The boundaries of the research topic were determined by the conducted interviews, and utilizing the feminist theory, qualitative research methods were used.
With this research, an effort was made at forming a systematic reference about female jazz musicians, which was previously not found in a thorough academic research before in Turkey. The people selected for the examination of their status in the field of jazz were seen as a starting point for the research of the subject, and following the transcription of their interviews, an attempt was made to determine the causes and conclusions of gender inequalities within jazz music in Turkey. Using the implications and the results gathered during the research, there was an intention to place an emphasis on the recognition of women jazz instrumentalists beyond what's known. In conclusion, in this paper, in order to provide support to studies of musicology with a feminist approach, up to date observations were made with the examination of women jazz instrumentalists in Turkey within the gender context.

Keywords

Women, Jazz, Instrument, Turkey, Gender

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