A bumpy road towards equality

Whatever the country, jazz worlds are ‘masculine’, numerically, socially, and symbolically. The French jazz world is no exception. However, in an attempt to create equality between men and women, in the last few years, French public institutions have started to implement a strategy of ‘positive discrimination’ (or ‘affirmative action’), although this has not been systematic. The objective of such a policy is to compel musicians, programmers, producers, and school administrators to recruit, finance, programme and/or train a minimal percentage of women jazz musicians. The article attempts to assess whether this new policy makes a difference when it comes to feminizing the French jazz world and to transforming its gender regime into a more egalitarian and less discriminatory one. It also tries to investigate why, when people working in jazz seem so eager to promote values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination, it remains so difficult to evolve towards a mixed and equal jazz world.