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A D R I A N C . N O RT H a n d A N N M . C O L L E Y
UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER
DAV I D J . H A R G R E AV E S
U N I V E R S I T Y O F S U R R E Y RO E H A M P T O N
sempre :
although there were also a few notable exceptions such as Madonna and
Whitney Houston.
A second study by North and Hargreaves (1996) is also consistent with
these conclusions. In response to a questionnaire printed in The Sunday Times
(see Mills, 1995), readers were asked to nominate their favourite and the
greatest in two musical categories, namely classical music composer and
pop music performer. Although 1098 questionnaires were returned, no
female classical music composer received more than a single nomination in
either the favourite or greatest categories. Although females fared slightly
better in the pop music categories, only one (Annie Lennox) was placed in the
top 10 for favourite performers, and none were placed in the top 10 for
greatest performers. It is also worth noting that, of the other artistic
domains investigated in the questionnaire (namely films, paintings, novels
and plays), only the nominations for literature gave rise to a substantial num-
ber of nominations for works by females (e.g. Jane Austen, Charlotte and
Emily Bront, George Eliot). These studies suggest that artistic works by
females are valued less than those by males, though the exceptional case of
literature may provide some evidence that this is not the result of females
possessing a generally lower level of artistic ability.
Recent psychomusicological research (e.g. Broker, 1996; Fuller, 1994) has
drawn attention to the work of female composers who have been historically
overlooked, and it seems very likely that cultural factors rather then talent
have impeded their development and recognition.
Cultural beliefs about the attributes of males and females are transmitted
through stereotypes (see the review by Hamilton and Sherman, 1994). The
general psychological literature in this area demonstrates that stereotypes
have a powerful effect upon the way in which we interact with the world.
They can mediate specific aspects of information seeking (Kunda, 1990; Skov
and Sherman, 1986), information processing (Hamilton et al., 1990), the
interpretation of information (Darley and Gross, 1983; Sagar and Schofield,
1980), attention (Bodenhausen, 1988; Zadny and Gerard, 1974), inference
(Bodenhausen and Wyer, 1985; Krueger and Rothbart, 1988), and retrieval
of information from memory (Bodenhausen and Lichenstein, 1987; Cohen,
1981). Of particular relevance to understanding the way in which gender
stereotyping occurs is Bems (1981) gender schema theory, which specifically
suggests that gender forms the foundation of the internal cognitive frame-
works which people employ in processing new information: it follows from
this theory that gender stereotypes should affect how people differentially lis-
ten to and interpret music by males and females. Thus, stereotypes of male
and female artistic abilities, used by individuals and embedded in institutional
cultures, may impede the progress of females, and prevent their work from
being evaluated positively. In terms of music education, stereotypes may have
a powerful effect upon the interest and achievement of female students,
particularly in genres which are heavily male-dominated. Indeed, there is
Method
PARTICIPANTS
A total of 153 students (63 males, 90 females) aged between 16 and 19 years
(average age = 16.64 years) were recruited from schools and colleges in the
East Midlands region of the UK. To provide further information on the
sample, a panel of three judges (1 male, 2 female) assessed a self-report meas-
ure of musical training and experience made by participants, and determined
that, of those who had provided sufficient information upon which to base a
judgement, 70, 44 and 23 participants possessed low, intermediate and high
levels, respectively. The research gave rise to no significant analyses involving
this factor, which is not discussed further. The level of musical training was
higher among the female participants, with 22 percent and 36 percent of
those coded having high or intermediate levels respectively. The comparable
figures for males were 9 percent and 26 percent. This difference was expected
on the basis of previous studies of musical interest and training among chil-
dren and adolescents (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music:
ABRSM, 1994: Crowther and Durkin, 1982).
names and pronouns where necessary. Each participant was presented with
three male and three female biographies. The six biographies within each
style were stapled on top of each other so that participants could read only
one at any given time. Each biography contained the sex-typed name of the
composer at its head, e.g. Adam Hersch, Charlotte Howarth. This was fol-
lowed by routine background information on the alleged composer (e.g.
birthplace, parents occupations), such that there was no evaluative informa-
tion concerning the composers music that might bias the participants
responses to the pieces attributed to him or her. The biographies were pre-
sented such that an equal number of participants responded to the masculine
and feminine version of a given biography: individual participants of course
were exposed only to the masculine or feminine version of each biography.
An approximately equal number of male and female participants responded
to the male and female versions of each biography. Two random orderings of
male and female composers biographies were prepared, which meant that
there were four sets of biographies within each musical style. An approxi-
mately equal number of males and females within each session were seated
at one of four tables, and on each table was one of the four possible combina-
tions of the biographies for the given musical style under investigation. These
four sets of biographies are demarcated in Table 1.
Six musical excerpts of one-minute duration were derived for each of the
three musical styles employed in the study, namely jazz, New Age and classi-
cal music (see Appendix). The classical music excerpts were composed in the
late 19th or early 20th century, and the jazz music excerpts were all contem-
porary small-group recordings of original pieces composed within the last
decade. Two random orderings of these excerpts were prepared within each
TA B L E 1 Summary of the presentation design for the six composer biographies within each musical
style
1 M1 F4 M4 F1
2 M2 M1 M5 M4
3 F4 M2 F1 M5
4 F5 F5 F2 F2
5 M3 F6 M6 F3
6 F6 M3 F3 M6
PROCEDURE
Participants were tested in quiet rooms within the educational establishment
from which they had been recruited. They were seated at one of four groups
of tables such that they could not see each others responses. To ensure that
participants did not realize that different sets of tables had different biogra-
phies associated with each musical excerpt, an experimenter was seated at
each table and, in the event of a question, participants were asked to raise
their hand and wait until the experimenter came to them. Male and female
experimenters ran each session.
The instructions to participants asked them to read a short biography of a
composer, listen to a piece of music by that composer, and then rate the piece
on several scales. These instructions then gave further general information: a
reminder to participants not to shout out any questions but to address them
to the nearest experimenter, a definition of some of the attributes used in the
rating scales, and a request to participants not to give any ratings until the
piece had ended. These instructions were read aloud by an experimenter
whilst participants followed their own printed copy. Each of the six musical
excerpts was then played and rated, and participants were allowed as long as
they required (typically about one minute) to give their ratings. Participants
were asked not to turn the pages of their response booklets and biography
booklets until they had all assigned their ratings. Once all the musical
excerpts had been played and rated, the same technique was applied to the
remaining pages of the response booklets. Participants were de-briefed at the
end of the session, and were informed of the option to tear up their responses
if they so wished (although none did).
Results
GENDER STEREOTYPING OF MUSICAL GENRES
The participants ratings of the extent to which males and females were likely
to compose in the three genres were analysed using a 2 x 2 x 3 (sex of partici-
pant x extent for males or females x genre) ANOVA. The analysis showed that
genres differed in the extent to which males and females were perceived as
likely to compose in them (F(2,144) = 6.47, eta-square = .082, p = .002). As
shown in Figure 1, females were perceived as slightly more likely to compose
7.0
7.0
6.5
6.5
6.0
6.0
Mean rating
5.5
5.5
Mean rating
female
female likelihood
likelihood
5.0
5.0 male
male likelihood
likelihood
classical
classical jazz new Age
New age
Musical genre
FIGURE 1 Mean ratings of the extent to which males and females are likely to compose in
the three genres.
classical and New Age music, but the major difference emerged for jazz,
which was perceived as more likely to be composed by males.
6.0
6.0
(a)
5.8
5.8
5.6
5.6
mean rating
5.4
5.4
Mean rating
Male
Male participants
participants
5.2
5.2 Female
female participants
participants
male
male female
female
Sex of composer
S f
6.6
6.6
(b)
6.4
6.4
6.2
6.2
6.0
6.0
5.8
5.8
Mean rating
Mean rating
5.6
5.6
male
Maleparticipants
participants
5.4
5.4 female participants
Female participants
male
male female
female
Sex of composer
S f
FIGURE 2 Means of the ratings given by male and female participants to (a) the artistic
merit, and (b) the technical competence of the jazz excerpts when attributed to male and
female composers.
Discussion
The main question asked in this study was whether variations in the attribu-
tion of musical excerpts to either male or female composers should lead to
variations in participants responses to those excerpts. It is clear from the
results obtained that such variations in response were present but arose
almost exclusively in the evaluations of the jazz excerpts. The reason why jazz
rather than the other genres was affected in this way is evident in the par-
ticipants ratings of the perceived likelihood of the two sexes composing in
the musical styles investigated. Figure 1 suggests that the composition of jazz
music was perceived as a masculine activity, whereas the composition of New
Age and classical music showed only minimal gender stereotyping. Thus it
could be argued that gender was more salient in the evaluations of the jazz
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
The authors are grateful to the staff of Groby Community College, Leicester; Pope
John School, Corby; Kingswood School, Corby; Prince William School, Oundle; and
Bosworth College, Desford, for providing access to participants; and also to Joan
Brown, Rik Butcher, Wendy Craig, Michael Timms, Nicola Clarke, Lisa Connor and
Victoria Brown for assistance in data collection. Pilot research for this project was car-
ried out by Wendy Monroe with support from Nuffield Foundation grant
SOC/100(197), and these two sources of assistance are also gratefully acknowledged.
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NEW AGE
Fuse, A New Day
P. Mergener and M. Weisser, Timber-Wave Reflections
Simple Minds, Someone Up There Likes You
Suzanne Ciani, Mosaic
Tangerine Dream, Song of the Whale (Part 2)
Trisan, May Yo I
JAZZ
Chick Coreas Elektric Band, Eye of the Beholder
Eric Marienthal, Crossroads
John Patitucci, Spaceships
John Scofield, Meant to Be
Kenny Wheeler, Double You Double You
Joe Henderson Quartet, Pentagon
CLASSICAL
Delius, Paris The Song of a Great City
Prokoviev, Ballet Suite, Das Madchen Julia
Prokoviev, Romeo and Juliet, Part 6
Saint Saens, Organ Symphony No. 3, Adagio
Shostakovitch, Symphony No. 5, Allegretto
Shostakovitch, Symphony No. 9, Moderato
A D R I A N C . N O RT H
is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Leicester.
His research interests lie in the social psychology of music. His most recent publica-
tion (with D.J. Hargreaves) is Age Variations in Judgements of Great Art Works,
British Journal of Psychology, 2002, 93: 397405.
Address: School of Psychology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester
LE1 7RH, UK. [email: acn5@le.ac.uk]
ANN M. COLLEY is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Leicester. Her
research interests lie in the psychology of gender differences in applied contexts. Her
most recent publication (with Z. Todd) is Gender Differences in the Style and Content
of E-mails to Friends, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2002, 21: 38093.
Address: as Adrian C. North. [email: aoc@le.ac.uk]
DAV I D J . H A RG R E AV E S is a Professor of Child Development at the University of Surrey
Roehampton. His research interests lie in the psychology of music and music educa-
tion. His most recent publication (with R.A.R. MacDonald and D.E. Miell) is Musical
Identities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Address: Centre for International Research in Music Education, University of Surrey
Roehampton, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5SL, UK
[email: d.j.hargreaves@roehampton.ac.uk]