Music and Gender

Growing up, there was some difference in what males and females listened to. The girls tended to listen to bands with cute guy singers--The Patridge Family, for example, with David Cassidy. He was considered “hot” in my day! Other groups or singers that I remember mostly girls listening to were Jim Croce, Barry Manilow, Andy Gibb, Bryan Adams, and Tears for Fears. The last three I saw in concert, and the audiences were about 95% female. Groups that the guys listened to tended to more on the hard rock side, like Van Halen and AC/DC. There were always exceptions, or course. Interestingly, the girls that listened to the hard rock bands were often considered part of a “rough” crowd. Many bands were listened to equally by both genders, such as America and The Eagles.

I took piano lessons during junior high and high school. Out of the 20 students that my teacher taught, one was male. The girls also predominately played the flute and violin. The males usually picked brass or percussion instruments. I also noticed that the vocal ensembles in school were mostly female.

In my son’s band at school the wind instruments were still predominately played by females. He was in the percussion ensemble which was about two-thirds male. During marching, only males played the drums, while the females played the marimba. I thought it was interesting that the best trombonist of his band was female. I was not used to seeing girls play the trombone.

Of the local symphony orchestras in the area, by which I mean western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and upstate South Carolina, the violin and viola sections are mostly female. The cellos seem to be equally divided, and bassists are about 3/4 male. The brass and winds are about equal. The community orchestra in Asheville that I played in had an all female percussion section. I thought that was cool! 40-50 years ago my former violin teacher was a member of the Cincinnati orchestra. She was the first and only female violin player at the time and felt very intimidated. She overcome her fears and eventually became the assistant concert-master.