It may only be February, but Thea Musgrave's recent standing ovation at the Coliseum is a strong contender for UK opera highlight of the year. Musgrave, 96, attended both performances of ENO's two-night run of her work Mary, Queen of Scots. It was the first time the 1977 opera had been on stage since 1980, and its velvety score is as timeless as a pussy-bow blouse. The Scottish composer seemed genuinely delighted with the revival (not all composers return for a second-helping of a performance) – and so were those could get on with the cheap-but-not-cheerful staging (a co-production with San Francisco Opera). But among the broadly positive notices one stuck out for a striking assertion. As it praised Musgrave, the Telegraph contextualised: 'Back in the 1970s, before neglect of women composers was recognised as an urgent issue (with resultant automatic entry to the Radio 3 playlist), there was at least one fine composer who bucked the trend. The Scots composer Thea Musgrave was active, often commissioned, and played regularly in Scotland and at the Proms.'

Let us park Musgrave's considerable achievements – Guggenheim fellowships, a CBE and the Queen's Medal for Music, alongside operas including Pontalba (2003) and Simón Bolívar (1995) – for a moment. Certainly, her career is extraordinary by any standards. Instead, we should consider the suggestion, slipped in to a review's introductory paragraph, that women composers are automatically permitted on to the Radio 3 playlist – by virtue of their gender. Now, the author is a former Radio 3 controller, so perhaps he knows of a time when women were indeed automatically included, no matter what they had produced. (I can't find any evidence that this was a historic policy.) If it wasn't meant literally, that indicates it is supposed to be... amusing.  

Full transparency here: I occasionally review for the Telegraph, covering when the above writer is otherwise engaged. I am an admirer of his music criticism and impressive CV. And I was curious to explore his assertion that women composers are automatically prioritised. I went directly to Radio 3, who were quick to respond: 'If people are noticing that Radio 3 is playing underrepresented composers whose music deserves to be heard, I'd say that's a very good thing,' says Sam Jackson, current controller of BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Proms. 'Initiatives like our celebration of women composers, conductors, performers and sound engineers on International Women’s Day, or Jenni Murray’s series on women composers on Saturday lunchtimes, undoubtedly play a part in this. What’s arguably more significant, though, is that right across the schedule, every day, we play music by women. It’s embedded within Radio 3 and Radio 3 Unwind – not to mention the BBC Proms – and that’s something I’m really proud of.' 

Sometimes, positive discrimination exists as a conscious policy. Like others, I have had my doubts about the fairness of such decisions. But there are times when fairness is not enough – and equity must prevail over equality in order to enable change. In 2018, the Proms was among dozens of international music festivals that pledged a 50/50 gender split by 2022 in its lineups. The keychange initiative, founded by the PRS Foundation, supports the Proms and others to scrutinise recruitment at every level, from programming to performances. The Proms now enjoys gender parity in its commissioning of new composers, many of whom will go on to be broadcast on Radio 3

So, if we're splitting hairs, a small handful of women composers might get automatic entry. But otherwise, Jackson (no relation) confirmed that there is 'no official policy' and composers are always selected on 'artistic merit'. As a final point, Jackson's team told me that BBC Radio 3 'champions talented women composers and we believe this will only enrich the classical music landscape.'

When Ethel Smyth – composer of operas Der Wald, The Wreckers and The Boatswain's Mate, among others – died in 1944, the Times observed that she 'won her lifelong battle for the right of a woman to be not a woman-composer but just a composer, an artist to be taken as seriously as one of the opposite sex may expect to be taken.' It's an aim we continue to pursue.