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Gender Association and Musical Instrument

Choice.
Codey Logan
James Madison University
December 2018
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Why is it normal to associate instruments with a gender? The choice of musical

instrument greatly impacts the education that any student will receive. Despite the world slowly

transitioning into a more gender equal and fluid society, most instruments still have strong

associations with gender. An association that has lasted unchanging for several generations

throughout the planet. There are many factors contributing to this fact such as social stigma,

interactions with peers and teachers, and intrinsic qualities of instruments. These stereotypes are

being perpetuated by each new generation without fail. The fact of the matter is, instrument

choice is subjective, but why then is the gender trend so apparent? It is important for educators to

try and bring a stop to it. There are many studies on this topic, however, I do not believe there to

yet be a most likely overall cause.

One of the main factors of gendering instruments is the established social stigma. Gender

itself is a social construct and we as a society tend to apply it to most things in our lives. For

example, the flute is commonly considered a more feminine instrument by society. In fact a

study showed that a majority of girls preferred upper woodwinds to any other section. In the

study “Musicians crossing musical instrument gender stereotypes: A study of computer-mediated

communication,” it was found that students come face to face with these kind of gender

stereotypes on the internet. Comment sections are filled with messages from presumed students

about, say for example, tuba being a boy’s instrument. The stigma is passed down not only

through pop culture, but from the student’s parents. The aforementioned study also showed that

parents have a preference for their child and it almost always aligns with gender stereotypes.

(Abeles, Hafeli, & Sears 2014) Another study, as outlined by Gina M. F. Wych, showed that

even people in non-music circles match up statistically with the expected thoughts about gender
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and instruments. It seems as though the only way to make any sort of change in the mindsets of

the people is through education.

An additional potential driving force of gendered instruments is the intrinsic qualities of

the instruments themselves. Studies show that children of the ages when you decide instrument

have very strong opinions of instruments based on how they sound and how they look. It seems

that a young girl will prefer the timbre of a clarinet over that of the trombone. Whereas a young

boy would most likely prefer the trombone’s sound. This plays directly into expected gender

roles in society itself. Girls are seen as quieter and more sophisticated, while boys are the harsh,

in your face, and less intelligent by comparison. Band room communities are oddly similar, most

likely due to this reason. The trombone section, regardless of gender, will always be more

rambunctious than the flute section. The instrument of course does not necessarily cause this

nature to come out but it takes a certain type of person to want to play each instrument. Another

big factor that tends to split genders is the size and shape of the instrument. Brass instruments are

typically much larger and unwieldy for young children. A middle school girl with a tuba would

seem odd to some people due to the size alone. The size of low brass instruments is often a big

selling point for young boys. The bigger size and louder tones produced can boost a boy’s ego

quite a bit at this age.

A very interesting perspective on this topic comes from Veronica Doubleday in her

article “Sounds of Power: An Overview of Musical Instruments and Gender.” She is an

ethnomusicologist and views this issue through a historical and worldly lens. Throughout time,

men have routinely decided what instruments that are acceptable for women to play. Doubleday

argues that there is an almost “fetishistic” bond between a person and their instrument. An

instrument for a musician is more than just a tool, it is a piece of them. Instruments have been
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represented as sexual symbols throughout many cultures. The phallic look of many instruments

has been traditionally used for symbolism around the globe. It is common for men to give their

instruments female names in order to establish an archaic sense of ownership. Many parts of

instruments are named after body parts, sometimes even sexual ones. (Doubleday, 2008)

The Doubleday article showed that this concept has existed as long as instruments have

all across the globe. There have been studies from around the globe that all confirm that these

biases exist everywhere. The article “Gender associations with world music instruments by

secondary school music students from the USA” examines how American students interpret

unfamiliar instruments. This study also showed that the gendering instruments is affected by the

factors discussed. The students either chose by the look or the timbre of the instrument. The

results showed that the students mostly agreed on their choices for which gender a given

instrument represented. This was expected for the visual portion as larger instruments were

generally masculine, and smaller feminine. What was perplexing, however, is that even when

judging purely on timbre, students still chose similar options. This shows that there may be some

sort of intrinsic quality to instruments that cause us by nature to gender them. Although, what I

find more likely is that social bias is deeply engrained to the point that an instrument having a

specific gender is the norm.

The article “Instrument Selection and Gender Stereotypes: A Review of Recent

Literature. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education” addresses an important piece

of this puzzle that is often lost in many studies. The matter of gender vs. sex. Even this article,

however, did not delve too deeply into the matter. In today’s world, it is finally becoming more

acceptable to be a gender that does not necessarily match up with one’s biological sex. There are

also many more genders than the traditional male and female. It would be very interesting to see
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how factoring in more members of the LGBTQ+ community would affect results. Perhaps it

would help in finding the causes of this age-old concept.

All in all, the act of implementing gender onto instruments is archaic. It is ultimately

problematic and harmful to the youth. Especially those wanting to play an instrument that

traditionally falls on the other side of the gender spectrum. A way to start combating this is to

show students all of the great musicians who have completely broken gender norms. The

ultimate goal is to eventually stop associating instruments with gender at all. While this is a far

off goal, it is certainly attainable with proper education. Hopefully this concept is fully realized

in the future.
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Works Cited

Abeles, H. F., Hafeli, M., & Sears, C. (2014). Musicians crossing musical instrument gender

stereotypes: A study of computer-mediated communication. Music Education

Research, 16(3), 346-366. doi:10.1080/14613808.2014.906395

Cantero, I. M. (2018). Blue and pink in extracurricular music education. Some differences

associated with gender at the beginning of studies. Revista Internacional De Educación

Musical, 0(15), 49-59.

Conway, C. (2000). Gender and Musical Instrument Choice: A Phenomenological

Investigation. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 146, 1-17.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40319030

Doubleday, V. (2008). Sounds of Power: An Overview of Musical Instruments and

Gender. Ethnomusicology Forum,17(1), 3-39. doi:10.1080/17411910801972909

Eros, J. (2008). Instrument Selection and Gender Stereotypes: A Review of Recent Literature.

Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 27(1), 57–64.

https://doi.org/10.1177/8755123308322379

Hallam, S., Rogers, L., & Creech, A. (2008). Gender differences in musical instrument choice.

International Journal of Music Education, 26(1), 7–19.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761407085646

Ho, W. (2003). Gender Differences in Instrumental Learning, Preferences for Musical Activities

and Musical Genres: A Comparative Study on Hong Kong, Shanghai and

Taipei. Research Studies in Music Education, 20(1), 60–

76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X030200010401
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Kelly, S. N., & VanWeelden, K. (2014). Gender associations with world music instruments by

secondary school music students from the USA. International Journal of Music

Education, 32(4), 478-486. doi:10.1177/0255761413515808

Marshall, N., & Shibazaki, K. (2013). Gender associations for musical instruments in nursery

children: The effect of sound and image. Music Education Research, 15(4), 406-420.

doi:10.1080/14613808.2013.826641

Wych, G. M. F. (2012). Gender and Instrument Associations, Stereotypes, and Stratification: A

Literature Review. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 30(2), 22–31.

https://doi.org/10.1177/8755123312437049