Running header: GENDER STEREOTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 1

Gender Stereotypes in the Music Classroom

Fernanda D. Azevedo

James Madison University

GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 2

Abstract

Gender bias is something our society has dealt with for many years. There has always

been a sense of inequality and a divide between what a woman should be allowed to do and what

a man should be allowed to do. Along with what is actually allowed or not, there are also

expectations surrounding gender. While there has been tremendous progress in bridging these

gaps, there are still noticeable biases and stereotypes surrounding gender. In the music

classroom, gender bias can be found in several areas including instrument choice and expected

gender of conductors and composers. Instrument choice is one of the most prominent arenas for

gender stereotypes in the beginning instrumental classroom. Many parents have preconceived

notions about which gender should be playing which instruments and try to push their children in

certain directions. This is usually not done with any poor intentions but rather out of fear for the

wellbeing of their child (Abeles, Hafeli, & Sears, 2014). The students themselves also seem to

develop an awareness of gender stereotypes in relation to instrument choice early on. Young

children are very perceptive and will begin associating instruments with gender if that is how it is

presented to them (Wrape, Dittloff, & Callahan, 2016). The fields of conducting and composition

are also generally seen as being very gendered, highly leaning towards being male dominated.

Women are generally seen as being better at teaching elementary school general music rather

than directing and conducting bands. There is a large gap between how many men direct high

school bands and versus their female colleagues. Because of this, women are often discouraged

from pursuing this profession because they do not have many female role models to look up to

(Fischer-Croneis, 2016). Students in music classrooms are also exposed to far more male

composers than female. While in the past, there were many more male composers than female

due to societal constraints, there are many female composers in history and in the present that
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our students are not familiar with (Colley, North, & Hargreaves, 2003). Of course there are more

males who have composed in general, making it difficult to include female composers in the

classroom to the same degree as male composers. Teacher could still, however, embrace female

composers in their classrooms to a greater extent than what is currently being found. If students

were given the opportunity to learn about men and women in a more equal manner, it is possible

that the gap between the genders in these fields would be far smaller, as girls may feel more

empowered to pursue this profession.

Evidence of Gender Bias in Music Classrooms

Throughout the history of orchestra, there has been fluctuation in what is considered to be

acceptable for men and women to play. A lot of this has to do with restrictions placed on women

in the past. It was seen as wrong for a woman to play a larger instrument so women were far

more likely to play violin and viola, while men were more likely to play cello and bass. All

female orchestras then began to appear which allowed women to play any of the instruments.

Despite this, there are still clear gender biases about the instruments in the orchestra today

(Baker, 2012). These gender biases are also present in the band classroom as well as any other

sort of beginning instrumental classroom.

Many of the gender barriers that have existed in music have lessened or gone away

completely throughout the years, but many stereotypes still exist. It has been found that younger

children, younger than second graders, do not have significant preferences in instruments based

on gender. In the early years of the 21st century, it was found that older children seem to prefer

instruments typically associated with their gender (Cramer, Million, & Perreault, 2002). There

are concerns among educators that gender stereotypes about each instrument are affecting the
GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 4

choices students are making about what instrument to play and if they should continue playing it.

In a study conducted with the Texas All-State orchestras between the years of 1971-2010,

females dominated males in the violin 1 and 2 sections. The viola section was a bit closer in

numbers but had more females throughout most of the years with few exceptions. The cello

section was also closer but had more years with more male domination than the viola section did.

In the bass section, there was an overwhelmingly larger population of male musicians than

females. This data shows that there is still a tendency for women to pick the smaller instruments

while men like to steer in the direction of larger instruments, a concept that dates back to

Victorian England (Baker, 2012). In a study conducted in 2016 in an unnamed suburban middle

school within the public school system, students in a beginning band were asked to categorize

flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, and

percussion into boy and girl instruments. Flute and clarinet were unanimously seen as girl

instruments while tuba was unanimously named a boy instrument. Saxophone and bassoon did

not have a clear categorization (Wrape et al., 2016).

These results were consistent with the actual gender make-up of the middle school band

used for the 2016 study previously mentioned. The gender of the student was found to have had

an effect on how they categorized each instrument. It was evident that students were more likely

to categorize saxophone to their own gender. Girls were also more likely to categorize trombone

and French horn as girl instruments than the boys were. The results of this study show that there

are still strong gender stereotypes for many instruments (Wrape et al., 2016).

When parents are asked to pick an instrument for their child, they also tend to pick

instruments associated with the gender of their child. This shows that these gender biases are

learned and do not inherently exist in people. Children were asked why certain instruments
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should or should not be played by men and women and their answers showed that what they are

told and shown truly has a deep impact on the ideas they form themselves. When children were

asked why a boy should not play flute, both boys and girls responded that they had never seen

that done before so it was assumed that it was not allowed (Cramer et al., 2002). Music

composition is another area of music in which there are differences in representation between

males and females. Men are generally more well known as composers than women. In a study

conducted in 1996, 1098 people were asked to name their favorite classical and pop composers

as well as the greatest in those two categories. In the classical category, no female composer

received more than one nomination for either favorite or greatest. In the pop category, there were

more nominations for females but still only one woman made it into the top ten for favorite and

none made it for greatest (Colley et al., 2003). It is clear that while children are not born with

these stereotypes, they can quickly form when exposed to them initially.

In a study done in the United Kingdom with students from 16 to 19 years old in 2003,

students listened to several musical excerpts from the classical, jazz, and new age genres. They

were asked to give a rating about how likely the excerpt was to have been written by a man or

woman. The genre that really stuck out was jazz, which students believed had a much greater

likelihood of being composed by a man. Students were also asked to rate the competence of each

composition. Female participants gave music by female composers a higher rating while the

male participants gave lower ratings to the jazz compositions written by females. This shows that

the genre of jazz is seen as predominately male, especially by other males, while women see

more of the value of women in jazz (Colley et al., 2003). While this study focused on the lack of

recognition of female composers in jazz, this is prevalent throughout many genres.

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Parents Perceptions of “Gendered Instruments”

Parents can have a strong effect on how students view gender biases in the instrumental

music world. Many of today’s parents have preconceived notions about the gender that should be

playing each instrument and push this on their children. In this digital age we are living in, many

of these parents are taking to the internet to discuss this issue and ask for advice about the

instrument their own child wants to play. In 2009, one mother posted a distressed comment on a

blog about how her son wanted to play the flute, which to her was clearly a girl instrument. Her

greatest concern, which was met with affirmation from other parents, was that her son would be

bullied for this decision (Abeles et al., 2014). Parents have a tendency to steer their children in

the direction of playing instruments that are usually associated with their gender. This may cause

children who had no previous bias, to begin creating them (Cramer et al., 2002). It has been

found that many parents and students take to the internet to find information about gender

stereotypes in relation to instruments. When comments like those posted by this mother in 2009

are the main source of information other parents and students are coming across when searching

the internet, it only perpetuates these stereotypes (Abeles et al., 2014).

Relationship Between Gender and Music

In 2004, third grade students in a large school district in New Jersey participated in a

study about instrument timbre preferences as well as instrument choice. These students were

given the Instrument Timbre Preference Test before beginning instrumental music classes

(Gordon, 1984). The greatest timbre preference for the boys was that of oboe, English horn, and

bassoon. For girls, the greatest preference was for flute, but it was still less than half of the
GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 7

female population (Kuhlman, 2004). These results, especially for the male students, are not

completely consistent with the stereotypes generally associated with what instruments each

gender should play. Students and educators were not given these results before students chose

their instruments for the next year, as to not skew any data.

Only 37 students actually chose to play the instrument that they showed a clear timbre

preference for. When they chose which instrument they would be playing, the results were much

more consistent with known stereotypes (Kuhlman, 2004). The results supported the hypothesis

that boys are heavily influenced by gender stereotypes when selecting instruments which takes

precedence over their actual timbre preferences. Girls also had a tendency to follow gender

stereotypes when selecting their instrument as well. Most girls selected flute or clarinet when

less than half of them actually had a preference for those timbres. This data shows that students

allow stereotypes to influence them more than what they actually want and enjoy (Kuhlman,

2004).

Not only does gender factor in to what instrument students play, it also plays a role in

what kind of music they like. In a study done in 2008, with undergraduate students at the

University of Leicester, participants had to rate a variety of musical genres including folk, rock,

reggae, opera, pop, rap, and a variety of other genres. Rock was the most highly rated by men,

while still receiving a fairly high rating from women. Heavy metal, folk, and blues also received

more high ratings from men. Pop received the highest rating from women. This aligns with the

stereotypical idea that men prefer heavier sounds while women prefer lighter music. Women still

did give relatively high ratings to the music that men rated the highest while men saw pop music

as being “uncool.” This is likely because men are less likely to cross the gender associated
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behavior line than women are (Colley, 2008). This is a trend that has been evident in many of the

studies conducted on this topic.

Lack of Women in Conducting and Composition Fields

While women had a greater likelihood of crossing gender lines when in comes to

instrument choice, they are still highly underrepresented in the fields on conducting and

composition. Sheldon and Hartley (2012) examined trends in conductors of ensembles

performing at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic throughout several decades in the 20th and

21st century. As the years went on, it was clear that the number of ensembles conducted by

women was growing. In the 1950’s only four women conducted at this conference. By the

2000’s, there were 22 female conductors at the conference. While this is great growth, there are

still far less women conductors present than there are men. In the 21st century thus far, there have

been 106 men who have conducted ensembles at this conference (Sheldon, & Hartley, 2012).

This distribution shows that there is growth in the participation of women in the field of

conducting.

In 2016, a study was conducted involving pre-service and in-service female band

directors. One of the domains that was explored was the ability to gain entry into the profession.

Some of the women reported feeling that they were asked questions in interviews that they did

not believe would be asked of men. One woman reported being asked if she would be scared in

front of so many kids which she perceived as a very sexist comment. Other women were told

things like not to wear their engagement rings or became worried about not being able to get a

job because they were at the age where they may start having children soon (Fischer-Croneis,

2016). While there is no guarantee that all women will face these hardships, these fears do
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become a reality for many women and thus cause many women to feel uneasy when entering this

profession. Another domain that was explored was navigating the profession once a woman had

found entry. One of the biggest concerns was that women had to develop a masculine persona in

order to be successful. They also felt that the profession had a “boys club” culture that made it

difficult for women to be successful in. These issues and concerns are some of the primary

reasons that there is a lack of female band directors (Fischer-Croneis, 2016).

One of the primary reasons women may be hesitant to pursue work in music composition

or conducting is because there is a lack of knowledge about women in these roles (Lindeman,

1992). Young children perceive stereotypes very quickly and very early in life. Just as they

associate playing tuba with men because that is what they are exposed to, they also associate

composition with men because that is generally all they know. When they are only taught about

the contributions of men in music as young students, they begin to think that only men can do

this work. It is important that our curriculum is changing along with everything that is going on

in the world. There are many more contributions to music made by women than there were

previously and these should be taught and celebrated in our elementary school classrooms so that

when students get older, they have a strong basis of knowledge about both men and women in

music (Lindeman, 1992). This will hopefully encourage more women to pursue careers in music.

There are very simple ways of incorporating women in music in to the classroom that do not

require much more or extra planning (Lindeman, 1992).

Recommendations for Future Practice

Understanding the information that has come from this research can guide a lot of change

in the music classroom. A lot, if not all, of this change needs to initiate from the teachers. One of
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the key pieces of information that has been gathered through this research is that students are

simply not exposed to female composers or conductors. Because of this, they assume that those

professions are not for women which could discourage female students who wish to pursue

careers in these fields. This could also force men to feel that they should be in these positions

instead of, for example, teaching elementary school music, which may be what they truly wish to

pursue.

One of the strongest recommendations for future practice that I could give would be to

introduce both male and female composers and conductors to students. This should start as early

on as in the elementary school general music classroom. One suggestion for implementing this

that could be useful in a classroom of any grade would be to have a composer of the month or

even week. Both male and female composers should be rotated between so that students are

getting a more comprehensive education about musical composers. It could be worth noting that

most female composers are more recent and explaining why that is, as long as it is clear that

there are now many females in the field and it should not be seen as a male only field.

Another way to expose students to both genders being active in all aspects of music

making it to start each class with watching a different video of a skilled performer on various

instruments. Not only would this help students musically by giving them good examples of what

each instrument sounds like so that they have something to strive towards, but it also exposes

them to the many different people that play instruments. Students should be exposed to a good

mixture of both men and women playing each instrument. This will allow them to feel that either

gender can be successful on any instrument.

One of the biggest factors that creates gender stereotypes in the music classroom is how

instruments are first presented to students. An idea for a positive way to first introduce students
GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 11

to instruments is to not have them watch someone play it at all so they cannot begin associating a

certain gender with an instrument. Of course, they still need to hear what it sounds like and

see/interact with the instrument, but there are other ways of doing so. One way that could work

well would be to have various stations with each of the different instruments that students could

visit. At each station, students could listen to recordings of the instrument playing so that they

can hear the timbre of it but without seeing who is actually playing it. They could then also have

the opportunity to test the instrument or at least hold it and see how it feels to them. This might

allow more students to pick instruments based off of what they actually like the sound of and

what they feel comfortable handling. Hopefully, this would lead to more students continuing in

band for longer and even continuing to produce music beyond their K-12 years.

Recommendations for Future Research

In order to further the progress towards gender equality in the music classroom, it is

imperative that research continues to be done and that new plans for future practice are

implemented based on the research findings. It is clear through the results of the research that has

already been completed that gender stereotypes do exist. Several outlets that students may be

receiving these stereotypes from have also been identified. Some of these outlets are from their

teachers and parents. In the future, it would be interesting to branch off of this and research how

these different outlets are presenting instruments to students and how this may be creating the

stereotypes.

Music teachers are often tasked with presenting students with the variety of band

instruments for the first time. The method these teachers choose to do this through will create the

basis for a student’s first impression of the different instruments. It would be useful to know

exactly how teachers are introducing students to instruments to gain a better perspective of how
GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 12

this may be effecting the student’s views of the gender stereotypes associated with each

instrument. For example, if it is found that a certain school which only has female flute players

has introduced the flute to students by having a female demonstrate what it sounds like for

several years, it could be that students are perceiving the flute as a “girl instrument.” Researching

several schools that have bands of varying gender make-up would provide data that is crucial to

understanding how and why gender stereotypes become so prevalent in the music classroom. It is

important that the gender make-up of the schools that are used in the research are different

because each type of school can give different but equally valuable information. In a school

whose music classroom demonstrates high gender bias such as the example stated earlier,

information about what is causing the stereotypes can be found. In a school where there does not

seem to be much gender bias, researchers can learn about what methods for introducing

instruments that the teacher is using which are not causing stereotypes to form. Finding out this

information can lead to change and reform in how teachers across the country introduce

instruments to children for the first time in order to not create stereotypes.

Researching ways in which parents may be adding to the bias would also be useful to

creating change. Many parents have preconceived notions about what gender should be playing

what instrument, however, many of these notions where created in a much different time. When

todays’ parents were in school and possibly in music classrooms, the gender gap was greater than

it is now and society viewed the genders in a much different way. Parents may still live with

some of these ideas and are now passing them on to their children who are growing up in a much

different time. It would be interesting to find out from parents how they were introduced to

instruments or how adults spoke to them about gender when they were children. This may help

researchers understand why they are now passing these ideas on to their children. It would also
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be useful to find out the gender of their former music teachers. Knowing if they have ever had a

female music teacher or if they know of any female composers could help to explain why many

people feel that they are male careers. The next step would be to then educate parents about

different ideas that they may have never been exposed to like showing them videos of a talented

male clarinet player or introducing them to the music of a female composer.

Further research is extremely important but even more important than that is to then use

that research to educate others. It is of no use for one or two people to gain knowledge of new

research so it should then be shared with others. Music teachers could benefit greatly from

understanding more about the impact of gender and biases in their classrooms and so could their

students.

Conclusion

It would be unjust to ignore the tremendous movement towards equality between the

genders that has occurred throughout music history. Music began as a realm exclusively for men,

as did many other things, and has now grown to include women in a variety of ways. There are

still, however, many stereotypes about what roles men and women should play in music even

today. While society tends to think about the restrictions imposed on women, there are also

stereotypical restrictions on men in music, especially in instrument choice. There are no actual

restrictions but due to society’s views on the gendering of instruments, it is difficult for men,

even more than women, to cross gender lines and participate in musical roles generally seen as

being female. As the world continues to progress towards greater equality, it seems hopeful that

music will move in this direction as well.

GENDER STEROTYPES IN THE MUSIC CLASSROOM 14

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