Location
Culp Room 219
Start Date
4-6-2022 11:30 AM
End Date
4-6-2022 11:45 AM
Faculty Sponsor’s Department
Music
Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor
Alison Deadman
Additional Sponsors
Steph Frye-Clark
Competition Type
Non-Competitive
Type
Boland Symposium
Project's Category
Music
Abstract or Artist's Statement
Abstract
Female Trombonists’ Experiences of Gender Bias
Em Poff and Dr. Alison Deadman, Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
Compared with their male counterparts, female trombonists are underrepresented throughout the United States especially in collegiate teaching positions. Does this underrepresentation cause fewer females to pursue playing the trombone and does gender bias play a role? After discussing the historical roles and excepted musical instruments for women to play during the 19th century, this document makes note of many women who were able to surpass societal norms and make their own musical choices. The purpose of this study is to discover if gender bias towards female trombonists exists and if it is a relevant negative factor in the experiences of and musical opportunities open to female trombonists today. This study and the survey questions were inspired by Melissa Ewing’s dissertation, Examining the Under-Representation of Female Euphonium Players in the USA. In order to create a trombone-centered survey, I modified Ewing’s survey questions and added other questions to help gain useful information from female trombone students and trombone professors. I limited my study to 4-year universities in the United States. The names of trombone professors were collected from the College Music Society directory. These professors were surveyed and asked to provide their own gender identity as well as the gender ratio of their studio. In addition, they were asked to forward a survey focused on the college experience of female-identifying trombonists to their female-identifying students. My study will serve as a resource for future research on female-identifying trombonists and gender studies in general regarding musical instruments.
Female Trombonists’ Experiences of Gender Bias
Culp Room 219
Abstract
Female Trombonists’ Experiences of Gender Bias
Em Poff and Dr. Alison Deadman, Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
Compared with their male counterparts, female trombonists are underrepresented throughout the United States especially in collegiate teaching positions. Does this underrepresentation cause fewer females to pursue playing the trombone and does gender bias play a role? After discussing the historical roles and excepted musical instruments for women to play during the 19th century, this document makes note of many women who were able to surpass societal norms and make their own musical choices. The purpose of this study is to discover if gender bias towards female trombonists exists and if it is a relevant negative factor in the experiences of and musical opportunities open to female trombonists today. This study and the survey questions were inspired by Melissa Ewing’s dissertation, Examining the Under-Representation of Female Euphonium Players in the USA. In order to create a trombone-centered survey, I modified Ewing’s survey questions and added other questions to help gain useful information from female trombone students and trombone professors. I limited my study to 4-year universities in the United States. The names of trombone professors were collected from the College Music Society directory. These professors were surveyed and asked to provide their own gender identity as well as the gender ratio of their studio. In addition, they were asked to forward a survey focused on the college experience of female-identifying trombonists to their female-identifying students. My study will serve as a resource for future research on female-identifying trombonists and gender studies in general regarding musical instruments.