Please post me (Monique Buzzarté) if you think of other questions which belong here, would like to answer a question, or think that an answer given here should be revised.

Q. How can women legally be excluded from membership in the VPO?
A. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra defends its discriminatory employment practices by defining itself as a "private club" and as such it is exempt from equal opportunity laws prohibiting discrimination against women. However, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are drawn almost entirely from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (142 of 149 members in 1994), and only members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra are permitted to audition for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite the fact that the Vienna State Opera is a state organization, totally funded and directly operated by the Austrian government, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra has just two women members, both harpists. (These harpists also perform with the VPO as "substitutes" but are not members of the VPO, with voting rights and other privileges.) As a result, the pool of applicants for positions with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra remains exclusively male.

As the parent organization, the Vienna State Opera provides the vast majority of services for the orchestra musicians, over 300 concerts a year, while the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra services are limited 85 concerts a year and the residency at the Salzburg Festival. However, none of the performances of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra would be possible without the indirect subsidy of the Vienna State Opera, and that reciprocal relationship calls into question whether or not the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra can legitimately be considered a "private club."

Source material from William Osborne.

Related to this question are orchestras that avoid the appearance of excluding women members by including women in just token numbers, as "non-voting" members (huh?), as long or short term substitutes (which can mean years!), or hiring women as "extras" for performances on tour in countries when discrimination against women is noticed and protested.

In the United States, women began to be admitted to major orchestras in the mid-1920's, although at first in those that were considered less "prestigious." (Sound familiar?) By the mid-1930's, women were present in most United States orchestras: by the late 1930's they were organizing to combat discrimination in the orchestral world, proposing that auditions be held for vacant positions, and that those auditions be screened. It wasn't until WWII, when the men left their positions to join the armed services, that women were able to freely enter the major orchestras.

"The VPO receives 6.9 million German marks for its work with this festival. (That's about 4.6 million dollars.) The article said this was about one fourth of their yearly income as an orchestra. That puts their yearly income at about 18.4 million dollars which is divided between 149 members. That would put the sum per member at over $123,000 per year minus their overhead. Their overhead is relatively small since their pensions, health insurance, etc. are all paid by their dual job in the government owned Vienna State Opera. The government also provides them with numerous other benefits."

"Though I can't be certain, I think it would be reasonable to assume that they make on average around $100,000 per year from the VPO. To this is added the very good income they make as members of the State Opera orchestra! In addition, their contact with the VPO makes them very sought after for other types of extra work and high paying teaching jobs. Many of them also have FULL professorships at the Vienna Hochschule fuer Musik."

"I'm not sure how their recording and broadcast royalties add into all of this, but you certainly get a clear idea of what women are being excluded from."