Abstract

This study surveyed 1,890 American and Canadian music therapists with the purpose to examine present-day men and women music therapists’ experiences as they compare with each other and as they compare with their 1990 counterparts in terms of their situations, their practices, their approaches, and their personal, work, and family concerns (Curtis, 1990). Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the structured and open-ended survey items revealed instances of commonalities and differences among the 682 respondents. In comparison to their 1990 counterparts, present-day women music therapists are significantly different in many instances; they are older, more educated, more often in academic settings, more satisfied with their career choice, and with many different concerns. Present-day men and women respondents’ experiences reflect more commonalities, differing only in that the men are older, more educated, more often in academic settings, and higher paid. The present-day women and men are similar to each other and differ significantly from their 1990 counterparts with 68%, 66%, and 91% respectively feeling sex discrimination has a general impact. Similarly 31% of the present-day men and 25% of the women are familiar with feminist music therapy, as opposed to 16% in 1990. Present-day men and women music therapists share a passion for their work, with 98% and 95% respectively recommending music therapy careers, as opposed to 56% in 1990.