Statistics
50% of the world’s population is female
6.5% of the Directors of Music (DOM), Organists, Assistant DOMs and Assistant Organists at English and Welsh Cathedrals are female
4.1% of the organists listed on one of the main UK organ recital pages in autumn 2022 were women
1.9% of repertoire performed by 34 Anglican cathedral choirs across the UK from 1st-8th May 2022 was composed by women
Please note these are indicative statistics, not comprehensive or definitive, and relate to the UK. Sources are given below with the date accessed. Other sources of information are being investigated by a team of volunteers and more information and updates will follow. The clear picture is that women are under-represented in the top echelon of organists in the UK.
Statistic 1: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.ZS (accessed September 2022)
Statistic 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_at_English_cathedrals (accessed September 2022 - only Anglican cathedrals listed)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_at_Welsh_cathedrals (accessed September 2022 - Anglican and 2 Roman Catholic cathedrals listed)
Statistic 3: https://www.organrecitals.uk/all-listings (accessed November 2022)
Statistic 4: This was calculated from the music lists published on the websites of the 34 Anglican cathedrals