In "A Wagner Matinée," Clark recounts how Aunt Georgiana had a career as a young woman teaching music at the Boston Conservatory, "somewhere back in the latter" 1860's. This line of work, however, was only newly available to women like Aunt Georgiana. Prior to the mid-19th century, art in women's education primarily served as finishing school lessons for marriage to upper-middle and upper-class gentlemen. Fine art was seen as part of ladies' moral education to help ingrain Victorian ideals. In fact, music was seen as a primarily feminine pursuit. Music lessons showed up more often in girls' education than in boys'.
Still, women were not educated for professional musical pursuits until the second half of the 19th century. During this period, women increasingly began to enter the teaching profession, which included music. According to US Bureau of Census figures from this era, the proportion of women in music increased to 60% in 1910, from 36% in 1870. Not only that, but women also began to pursue musical professions outside of amateur circles. Women became patrons of music and fine art, founding conservatories, forming ensembles, and performing in musical theater, opera, and even as virtuoso instrumentalists on the concert stage. These developments sparked a raging debate over the biological role of women in the arts, including whether women could and should participate fully in the "higher forms" of art. But regardless of the debate, a whole generation of women artists, including Cather's character of Aunt Georgiana, took their place onstage during this period.
