Women have made tremendous progress in the past fifty years.
I really do not care how misogynistic western society was a century ago.
Yet and yes, Aries' views are firmly rooted in attitudes from the 19th century, as described for example also in the following articles.
(the OP already mentioned a bit of historical background, but):
1) An article dealing with some 19th century women composers, besides mentioning the intimate, limited and emotional miniature genres they were supposed to deal with, if being active as composers besides being musicians, such as Lieder:
"... The relative unsuccessfulness of 19th century women composers in their time was the result of numerous factors, including social constraints and tight chains forged by the hands of fellow musicians and composers, whose eyes could not see as far as their ears could hear. In the same way, the current widespread ignorance is the result of numerous factors (...) Even if a woman did manage to gain the courage to work outside of the home and defy her limiting role in the household (...), and if she then attempted to compose, she would also face the obstacle of becoming accepted, or even noticed, in the world of music. The most powerful people (...) were male " (etc. ...).
https://digitalshowcase.lynchburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=agora
2) Another article about Maria Szymanowska, briefly summing up some of the conditions for female composers & the causes for their relative neglect, also dealing a bit with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel:
https://culture.pl/en/article/elisabeth-zapolska-chapelle-women-composers-worked-in-isolation
"
Let's recall here the curious information, repeated over years (...) that most of Maria Szymanowska's compositions were published (...) in the years 1819 to 1820 by the renowned Leipzig publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel. I examined the catalogues (...): they didn't publish women's works, as the very concept of a 'woman composer' simply did not exist. The one, lone exception to this was (...) - a few years earlier - the Romances of the Dutch Queen Hortense Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine. Maria Szymanowska was only able to count on some limited interest on the part of European publishers once she had attained the title of Court Pianist to the Russian Czar (...), and had achieved international fame with her performing tours - so actually, some four or five years after (...) ... Women composers were forced to resort either to copying their works by hand or to having them printed at their own expense. "
3)
A 3rd article, in Danish, but there's a summary in English, about the composer Nancy Dahlberg, "a composing lady", concluding, among other things, that: a) women composers were by definition considered inferior to male composers way up in the 20th century, very obvious from the reviews b) she had to organize and finance concerts for her music to be known, in spite of her talent and fine educational references:
Quote: "
Close reading of newspaper critics shows that it was acceptable in society for a woman to manifest herself as an artist but that she was expected to express herself in a particular way, which would not assail the prevailing conception of femininity. In other words, music criticism was characterized by a sexual ideology which prevented it from evaluating Nancy Dalberg's compositions objectively. As a result her creative efforts were not taken seriously and gradually she lost the confidence to present
herself as a composer."
(Fund og Forskning article about Dahlberg 2006, available as PDF)
4) an article describing the publication strategies and reception of four 19th century female composers, Fanny Hensel, Emma Hartmann, Ida D'Fonseca and Frederikke Løvenskiold, in Danish, arriving at the same conclusions: if women would compose music, it would be an exception, if the works were published.
- Fanny Hensel's surroundings excelled the same limitations for her career, and she was always in doubt, whether it was appropriate for her to publish her works, including using her own name;
- Emma Hartmann preferred to publish anonymously or using a fake name; since women's musical education remained mostly practical rather than theoretical, this would tend to limit their more ambitious efforts, and in the case of Hartmann, she was even bad at writing scores & got assistance for that from male acquaintances.
- Ida D'Fonseca was the first Danish female composer, that published in her own name (songs) and financing them herself; she had a short singing career, was unorthodox and remained unmarried. She got mixed reviews (it is not mentioned how much they focused on her sex), but she mostly composed songs to promote her career.
- Frederikke Løvenskiold composed works as private gifts, or for ceremonial occasions in her aristocratic surroundings (fanfares etc.), and she wasn't under the pressure of producing High Art. But sometimes she preferred to publish anonymously anyway.
https://library.au.dk//fileadmin/ww...seter_Musikhistoriografi_og_faghistorie_2.pdf
