This document discusses gender disparities among professional orchestral bassists. It provides data showing that the majority of top orchestras have few or no female bassists. The document then explores how gender influences choices of musical instruments in education, career paths in the professional world, and experiences within orchestras. It discusses concepts like hegemonic masculinity/femininity, intersectionality, and the gender structure on multiple levels. Potential solutions proposed include encouraging girls to play bass early on, using screens in auditions, improving family policies, and addressing harassment.

1. Femininity,
Masculinity, and the
Bass

2. The Bass and
Gender

3. ICSOM
Orchestras

4. 51 orchestras

5. 314 bassists

6. 26 women

8. Orchestra # of
Bassists
#of
Women
Bassists
Principal/Ass
oc. Principal
Rank by pay
Chicago 9 0 M/M 1
LA Phil 7 0 M/M 2
San Francisco 9 1 M/M 3
NY Phil 9 1 M/M 4
Boston 9 0 M/M 5
National 7 0 M/M 6
Cleveland 9 0 M/M 7
Minnesota 7 2 F/F 8
Philadelphia 7 0 M/M 9
Pittsburgh 9 1 M/M/F 10
Cincinnati 7 0 M/M 11
Dallas 7 1 M/M 12
Houston 7 0 M/M 13
Atlanta 7 1 M/F 14
St. Louis 8 2 M/F 15
Detroit 5 0 M/M 16
Indiannapolis 7 2 F/M 17
Baltimore 6 0 M/M 18
Utah 7 1 M/M 19
San Diego 8 2 M/F 20

9. Our Discussion
1.How pervasive is the influence of gender? [hint: very!] Some helpful
academic framework and terms.
2.Gender in music education - Choosing instruments, how students are
encouraged, other ways education can influence career paths.
3.Gender in career musicians - interacting with colleagues, students, and
institutions. Invisible privilege and discrimination in the professional
world.
4.What can we do to promote equality?

10. Women do not all have
the same experience.

13. Intersectionality
“The complex, cumulative way in which the effects of
multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism,
sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect,
especially in the experiences of marginalized
individuals or groups.” - Merriam Webster

14. Dimensions of the Gender
Structure
• individual: how we view our own gender as a part of our
identity. “I’m just being me.”
• interactional: how our gender dictates the way we interact
with others and portray ourselves in various social settings.
(i.e.: being the “pursuer” in a heterosexual dating situation,
helping in the kitchen at Thanksgiving)
• institutional: how gender is embedded in our most
important social institutions. (family hierarchy, public
bathrooms, military draft)
Riseman (2004)

15. Sex/Sex Category/Gender
• Sex: Biologically-based assignment using criteria that has been
socially agreed upon to determine a person’s membership in one of
two groups: male or female.
• Sex category: Having been assigned a sex, in every day life we use
socially required identificatory displays to show others to which
group we belong, without showing our genitalia or chromosomal
makeup. These assume sex but are not necessarily determined by
it.
• Gender: An accomplishment, or series of performances, requiring
social interaction in order to achieve socially constructed norms of
behavior expected from one’s sex category.
— West and Zimmerman (1987)

16. more robust definition of gende
An institutionalized system of social practices
for
tuting people as two significantly different categ
and
organizing social relations of inequality
on the basis of that difference.
- Ridgeway and Correll (2004)

18. Hegemonic
Masculinity/Femininity
• Hegemonic Masculinity: qualities defined as manly that
establish and legitimate the hierarchical and
complementary relationship to hegemonic femininity.
• Hegemonic Femininity: qualities defined as womanly
that establish and legitimate the hierarchical and
complementary relationship to hegemonic masculinity,
that, by doing so, guarantee the dominant position of
men and the subordination of women.
- Schippers (2007)

20. Choosing an Instrument

21. How is the bass
“masculine”?

22. Mentors
“social vaccines”

23. The Transition from Student
to Professional
Although it seems there are more young women
playing the bass and studying music in school, the top
echelon of professionals is overwhelmingly men.

24. Blind Auditions
In 1988, a study concluded that blind auditions made
it 50% more likely for a woman to be hired.

25. What other factors are there when even
blind auditions don’t lead to equality?
• Pre-screening
• No-hires leading to appointments
• Inconsistency of screen use
• Outside factors - support work, household labor

26. What about once you’re in
the job?
• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Family/parental leave options
• Male-dominated bass section exclusiveness
• Microaggressions

28. What can we do??

29. A few ideas…
Notice!
Start early - encourage girls to play bass
Role models - outreach programs are a good place to
use them!
Consistent use of a screen in all phases of orchestra
auditions
Fight to improve family leave and response to reports of
harassment in orchestral settings

30. References and Links
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago
Legal Forum 1989 (1): 139-167.
Phelps, Amy Louise. 2010. “Beyond Auditions: Gender Discrimination in America’s Top Orchestras.”
DMA diss., University of Iowa.
Ridgeway, Cecilia L. and Shelley J. Correll. 2004. “Unpacking the gender system: A theoretical
perspective on cultural beliefs in social relations.” Gender & Society 18(4): 510-531.
Risman, Barabara J. 2004. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism.” Gender in
Society 18: 429-450.
Schippers, Mimi. 2007. “Recovering the Feminine Other: Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender
Hegemony.” Theory and Society 36(1): 85-102.
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender & Society 1: 125-151.
Other web:
Intersectionality graphic found here: http://www.dayofthegirl.org/intersectionality
Article about mentors in engineering: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/women-mentors-
engineering/527625/