Sex-Stereotyping of Musical Instruments

In my study regarding the sex-stereotyping of musical instruments, one individual keeps popping up as a viable resource.  Hal Abeles, the head of the Music Education Department at Teachers College of Columbia University has been in the forefront of researching this topic.  In 1978, Abeles, in collaboration with Susan Yank Porter, first published a study in the Journal of Research in Music Education entitled “The Sex-Stereotyping of Musical Instruments”, in which they reported a series of studies the two had conducted over the previous couple of years.  There were 4 main studies: Study 1 inestigated musical preferences adults had for children.  Study two surveyed a population to place specific instruments on a scale from most feminine to most masculine.  The third study investigated the instrumental preferences of children in grades K-5.  The final study explored procedures used to present instruments to preschool children.

            The first study mentioned, that of adult musical instrument preference for children surveyd 149 adults aged 19 to 52 chosen from public school and church-related activities.  From the applicant pool alone, it can be determined that music played some part in these individual’s lives simply from the culture they were derived from.  The format of the survey was as such:

“Your fifth grade son/daughter has indicated in a school survey that she would like to play a musical instrument… “ (Note: Half the surveys said son, while the other half said daughter.)

The applicants were then asked to rate a series of instruments in order that they would prefer to encourage their respective child to pursue.  The instruments were as follows (these same instruments were used in each study)

Cello

Clarinet

Drums

Flute

Saxophone

Trombone

Trumpet

Violin

The results of this study was quite revealing as to gender stereotypes.  Participants in the study were  1.8 times more likely to give a higher preference for clarinet for a daughter than for a son, and 2.24 times more likely to encourage a flute to their female children.  On the other hand, a boy would have Three times the chance to be encouraged to play trumpet by his parent(s) than his female classmates.  Drums were significantly less appropriate for girls than boys (ratio of 1:4) Trombone also was significantly more “masculine” , but was not particularly popular for either boys nor girls. (boo!)

Since parental involvement plays a HUGE role in participation in a music program, let  alone selesction of musical instruments, it was quite interesting to find such a bias towards the more “masculine vs. feminine” instruments. If the parents don’t want their sons to play flute, what motivation would a student have to pursue that instrument?  (It doesn’t matter that some of the most prominent flute players are male).  The entire influence of parents on sex-stereotyping of musical instruments is essentially what is keeping the bias alive.  It is an unending cycle between judgement of peers and parents.  The parents, when they were students, saw the trumpet and drums as masculine instruments.  Not wanting their children to be anything but normal to spectacular, they refrain from encouraging, even discourage, the cross-gendering of instrumental participation.  This new generation now has bias coming from two angles: they have that prejudice from their peers as well as the judgement from their parents.  This sense of tradition keeps our culture in a stuck community, with no real ability to break free without social persecution.

Speaking of role models, the last of Abeles’ studies in this series of research looked at the perspectives of musical stereotypes in young children.  There were three groups of children surveyed.  One group was introduced to the instruments just by hearing the sounds each instrument makes as well as pictures of each instrument  without any one in the picture.  A second group had people playing the instruments with corresponding gender-stereotypes.  The third and final group included video of gender-crossing instrumental playing.  The results of this study showed there was no real significant preference of instrument by gender on the part of the children.  The bias is not in the children – it is by their reaction to peers and parents.

 A few years back, Sesame street had a female monster, Zoe, start to play the trombone.  Now, for my paper, I’m going to have to find a way to get segments of the TV show to see how they presented the trombone and if there were any sex stereotyping mentioned (in 3-year-old terms, of course). 

From my perspective, I had to develop a tough outer shell to cope with being the fat kid at school. To do this, I “hid” behind a masculine instrument, the trombone.  Never mind that it was cool and the only instrument to change its size while being played, it was BIG and played LOW NOTES. (I’m pretty sure that if my dad had a tuba laying in the basement I would have picked that up as a first instrument.)  Playing the trombone made me different. It made me “special”.  I played all the time, and best of all, I played LOUD in rehearsal and my conductor loved it (in many cases I was the only one or one of two trombones in the band.)  Playing the trombone became a part of me, like any musician would identify with their instrument.  However, part of my reasoning was that it made me feel less vulnerable.  (It also could be the fact I could poke someone from 3 feet away… just saying….)

Abeles conducted another series of studies that was published in 2009 to see if 40 years had changed the sex stereotypes.  When he came to present his findings at Westminster Choir College earlier this semester, he proved that there were still issues of gender-crossing with instrumental preference, but the ratios were significantly smaller. (I will be addressing the difference of these studies in my paper, but the actual report on it is difficult to find online without paying a $25 fee.)

The research I am doing in my BHP course this semester is rather like the third study  Abeles conducted.  I will be surveying three 5^th grade classes at 2 different elementary schools (providing they don’t back out on me) regarding their preference for instruments.  Depending on what group they are in, they will be given one of these prompts, and asked to rate their level of preference to learn, as well as asked a series of follow-up questions.  

Hopefully the results of this survey will be ready in time for my presentation on the last day of class! :-)

The URL for the study online is: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3344880