women discrimination in the workplace : a look at opera house directors in France

opera houses in France

There are 29 opera houses in France. Fortunately, opera life is dynamic also outside Paris in a lot cities in France ! You will find below the map of all opera houses in France!

Mapping of opera houses in France

Some of opera houses are by the way quite active on social and digital media :)! That’s good point ! However, regarding the number of women positions in the top management positions, it is an another matter ! French operas are not paving the way to say the very least.

French opera houses : Women discrimination in the workplace ?

Many a recent surveys e.g. SACD’one indeed has emphasized the strong inequalities between women and men in the cultural industry. Classical music and opera house are alas far from being an exception to this sad fact, since women are more than underrepresented in top management or programming positions ( conductors, soloists , directors of concert hall or opera houses).

Among the 29 lyric institutions identified by the ROF, only two are headed by women : Caroline Sonrier in Opera de Lille (http://opera-lille.fr/en/)  and Valerie Chevalier-Delacour in Opera de Montpellier (recently appointed in December 2013).

Caroline Sonrier & Valérie Chevalier-Delacour are the only women heading an opera house in France

Caroline Sonrier & Valérie Chevalier-Delacour are the only women heading an opera house in France

We coud also mention a fact about Opera Royal de Versailles to offset this blatant male domination at the head of French opera houses! Even if the leading director of Opera Royal de Versaille is Laurent Brunner, the former journalist Catherine Pégard heads the public establishment gathering the Castle, the Museum and the National Domain of Versailles.

2 female opera directors out of 29. This amounts to a women/men ratio of 7.7 % (!). Can we talk about women discrimination in the workplace in this case ? I let you answer. Still for me, figures and facts speak for themselves ! A few days before the International Women’s Day (8th March), it is something to think about ! International Women's Day

Licence Creative Commons “women discrimination in the workplace : a look on opera house directions in France” by Ramzi SAIDANI is under terms and conditions of the licence Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 France

About Ramzi SAIDANI

Ramzi SAIDANI is fond of classical music (abooove all opera) and new technologies. He particularly likes digital, the web, Puccini, Massenet, Domingo, Alagna, Netrebko & Gruberova (Grubi for the closest friends :). He has been working as digital marketer and strategy consultant for 15 years. He has funded Lanoramax a consulting company focused on cultural industries that helps the start-ups (of which Sonic Solveig) and the incumbent musical institutions to achieve their digital transformation and strategies. He has created and animated the Meet-up Music and Digital (#MusikNum) in the CentQuatre Paris since septembre 2016. Ramzi is a also a tenor. He has studied lyric singing with Pierre VANHOENACKERE in Tourcoing Conservatory and Robert Expert and Sonia Morgavi in Bobigny. He is also president of the Association Cavatine et Rondo (dedicated to lyrical music promotion) and he wrote a book of short stories ”Nouvelles Russes”, in which of course music play a major role :)

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