Piano Forum

Their male contemporaries are generally better. There's nothing wrong with enjoying these composers, but saying they're just as good denies the fact that most of these women weren't allowed to study music formally and never had the chance to fully develop their talent.

You misunderstood what I was writing. I wrote that the female composers were neither better nor worse than the men. This means that there is no significant difference between these groups. There is not a person in the world who can determine whether an anonymous, unknown composition is written by a man or a woman. Just as you cannot tell from a recording whether the pianist is a man or a woman, slender or fat, white or black or whatever. Maybe there is a little chance you can make a good, rough guess about the age (very young, adult, very mature), but that is all. Musical abilities simply do not have any connection to gender.   

Actually I went to a concert yesterday which did not only feature a symphony written by a woman - Louise Farrenc - but also a female conductor, Shiyeon Sun, who turned out to be very good. (The orchestra consisted mainly of young music students from all of the world, and it just happened to be that all 4 double bass players were female too, which is not that common.)

Anyway, we learned that Farrenc was one of the few women who got the opportunity to get the whole formal education in music, thanks to her supportive family, and then she also married a music publisher who made sure that all her works got published and acclaimed during her life-time. And the symphony was good job. It does not compete with the biggest works by Beethoven, because nothing does (IMO) but it was a good piece of work. My husband, who normally is not THAT interested in classical music, was very enthusiastic afterwards.

What you say here is a bit dangerous, when you use expressions as "the male contemporaries are generally better". No, not GENERALLY. What you say then is more fair, that those persons who got better opportunities to study and market their music, also achieved more success.
Again, I hoped we had left the days when musicians could dismiss some music with excuses like "I am not interested in music written by women" or "women are worse composers than men". This is, unfortunately, what could be the result of making generalizations. 

My own favourite among composers is Beethoven. This is not because he was a man.