The flute is a "girl" instrument: reimagining the Beaver music program to combat cultural norms, gender bias
Here’s why and how we tackled decades-long stereotypes in our music program and what we learned along the way.
By Tina Farrell, Artistic Director and Head of Performing Arts at Beaver Country Day School
Believe it or not, instruments have genders.
Of course, not exactly, but as our culture has developed, some instruments have become identified with certain genders.
This is what I learned when Ana Norgaard, a music teacher at Beaver, researched and wrote on instruments and gender as part of her graduate degree work.
She found, in part, that:
“Society continues to attribute gender associations to musical instruments as well as to some musical styles. Individuals are perceived differently and are often not only stigmatized, but in some instances, they may experience harassment when they play instruments that are considered counter-stereotypical for their gender. Findings show that this stigma is particularly pronounced for boys who play instruments considered to be ‘feminine.’” (Read more)
Can you guess which instruments are considered feminine and which are masculine?
Close your eyes and think about images of flute and clarinet players. Who comes to mind when you envision trumpet players and percussionists? In American culture, flute, clarinet, and string instruments have developed a feminine identity, and brass, saxophone, and rhythm section instruments have developed a male identity. As a parent myself I also started to think through my daughter’s friends who were taking music lessons. Sure enough, the instruments fell largely along these gender lines.
This new understanding played a big role in my analysis of our music program.
In our Upper School music program, we struggled for years to understand why our program was dominated by boys, no matter how hard we tried to recruit girls. Our hands were tied when we tried to increase the size of the ensembles or broaden the repertoire we taught because the boys came into the program playing almost exclusively rhythm section instruments (bass, guitar, piano, percussion) and some brass.
Now I had a better sense of where our focus should lie.
It wasn’t as easy as recruiting girls, it was about combating cultural norms.
Our first decision was to teach all of the instruments from scratch starting with Beaver’s youngest students—6th graders. We introduced a choral and instrumental music program teaching brass (trumpet, trombone, tuba), woodwind (clarinet, flute, saxophone), strings (violin, viola, cello), and chorus. This is considered core curriculum at Beaver and classes meet three times a week for the whole school year. The program is modeled after an orchestra and instruments are paid for by the school to allow all students to have the same access. The students go through a matching process where they take one class on each instrument family, and then they are matched with an instrument based on their interest, feedback from the teacher, and the needs of the ensembles While creating the ensembles the teachers pay special attention to attracting girls to instruments that are considered masculine and boys to instruments considered feminine. We also work throughout the year to show them images of a variety of gender identities in the classroom and in master classes.
The outcomes have been noticeable and significant.
In the Upper School program, there is much more female, non-binary, and non-male identifying representation of both masculine and feminine instruments. Students are playing a wider range of instruments regardless of the student’s gender identity. This in turn allows us to play a wider range of repertoire, allowing us to create a more inclusive program.
In order to combat cultural norms, Beaver had to rethink music education and how it’s been done for decades; it was an unlearning process, but as a result, we eliminated barriers to entry and leveled the playing field for all students.
Cultural “norms” are meant to evolve, to be responsive and reflective of the real world as it's rapidly changing. When these norms don’t evolve, they become barriers to access, roadblocks to new experiences or perpetuate misconceptions. By rethinking music education through the process of unlearning, we have been able to reframe our program with new norms that are more diverse and inclusive.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Are there norms influencing your curriculum and practice that you’d like to challenge and reframe?
Can you think of an example of something you’ve unlearned and/or assumptions you’ve made?
How can you create an environment that is conducive to unlearning for yourself, for your students, and/or for your organization?