Discrimination and Isolation Experienced by Female High School Band Directors
Open Access
- Author:
- Sellers, Katherine Anne
- Area of Honors:
- Music Education
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Music Education
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Linda Carol Porter Thornton, Thesis Supervisor
Darrin Howard Thornton, Faculty Reader
Dr. Linda Carol Porter Thornton, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- music
music education
band
band directing
high school
high school band
women
sexism
feminism
discrimination
female
female high school band directors - Abstract:
- In teaching high school band, men outnumber women 3 to 1 (Schoelesser, 2002). The purpose of this study is to investigate the discrimination and isolation experiences of female high school band directors, with further consideration of the regions in which they have resided or taught. Associated research questions include how gender stereotypes in instrument selection may impact high school band directing careers and different motivations for becoming a high school band director. This research was gathered through a Google Forms survey distributed by email to Sigma Alpha Iota alumnae chapters and through two Facebook posts on band director pages, as well as nine phone interviews drawn from interested participants of the survey. There were 688 valid responses to the survey and 138 of those participants expressed interest in an interview. There was no noted discrepancy in discrimination and isolation experiences by region, including regions where participants attended high school and college nor regions where participants taught or are currently teaching. The interviews support the conclusion that women high school band directors’ discrimination experiences are uniform across all regions of the United States (and internationally). However, most of the discrimination comes from the band community (other professionals in area, school district, etc.), rather than from students, parents or administration.