Sorry It Has Taken So Long: Continuing Feminist Dialogues in Music Therapy

Abstract

The impact of feminism – along with its understanding of the complex interactions in our lives of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, and age – arrived late in music therapy. This paper reviews what feminist impact exists, explores possible challenges faced, and identifies the most recent endeavors in the area including the first International Conference on Gender, Health, and the Creative Arts Therapies and a gathering of feminist music therapy researchers, both hosted in Montreal, Canada in 2012. These issues will be explored further in the forthcoming special issue of the Arts in Psychotherapy dedicated to Gender, Health, and the Creative Arts Therapies edited by Dr. Sandra Curtis, with contributions from many significant experts in the field.  Members of the music therapy community are encouraged to examine the meaning of feminism and gender in their own context and to join in the important dialogue on gender in music therapy which holds great potential to enrich our theory, practice, and research.