Austrian composer lands $1/4 million prize

John Borstlap says:

“……The relative absence of female composers in this list – which, by the way, does not claim to be comprehensive – does not mean that there is a lack of composing women. In contrary, due to 20C emancipation movements, a mainly male-dominated art form has opened its ranks to the gender which had been discouraged, suppressed, ignored for ages. But it seems that a majority of female composers are attracted to sonic art, especially of the hardcore type, and much less so to the new tonal and / or classical variety where this book is about. This can be explained by the emancipatory position in which many female composers find themselves: male prejudices tend to undermine female creativity by consigning it to the nice but insignificant corner of homely pleasures like embroiderie and child care, preparing afternoon tea and offering a place of warm recovery from the husband’s hard fight with the realities of the world at the workplace. So, to avoid any invitation to label their work as nicely feminine, they choose the cutting edge of aural aggression, to outdo their male peers in the field. As male composers can be feminine in their work, females can play the male role as well, and this underlying gender struggle may define the nature of ‘female new music’ for quite a while.”

Quoted from some expert source:

https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Revolution-Thoughts-Century-Expanded/dp/0486814483