Sax Discrimination

That title stolen borrowed from the Times leader today (written methinks by Robbie Millen, has his style to it). They've a couple of pieces on the subject of which children get encouraged to play which instrument.

It's easy enough to answer their headline on that second, why don't little girls play the tuba? No little anythings play the tuba, that's an instrument you move to when you're of a larger physical size. Trumpets, horns, euphoniums to start out, perhaps, but tubas need a larger lung size (as well a certain physical size) to play.

But there is one place where stereotypes are still calling the tune: the music room.

Macho instruments such as the trombone, drums and electric guitar are the province of boys, while girls stick to the gentler tones of the flute, harp and violin.

Now education experts are asking why. They blame gender stereotyping by both teachers and parents, peer pressure and the fear of bullying and the size and shape of instruments.

Hmm, sounds like our education experts are fixated upon the tabula rasa nature of gender differences. Let's start by assuming that instruments really are macho or not: drums, for example, appeal to that boyish enthusiasm for hitting everything with anything that comes to hand. And let's agree that there is indeed gender stereotyping in what children are encouraged to view as the appropriate instrument.

If we got rid of that stereotyping, would we see equal numbers of boys and girls playing each instrument?

No, I don't think so, as a result of the work of Simon Baron Cohen and his looking at the "male" and "female" brain types (these can also be referred to as systemising and empathising). His postulate is that there is a spectrum of brain types, from those stereotypically described as "male" to those so described as female. The important point is that an individual can be anywhere upon this spectrum, but the probability is that a boy (or man) will be towards one end, a woman (or girl) to the other. The probability of a woman having the male brain type is about 17% and vice versa of that same 17%.

Which leads to a rather interesting conclusion. Assume that different instruments really do appeal to the different brain types. And further, that we wipe out the stereotyping in the push to selection, and children choose the instrument most appropriate for themselves.

Would we end up with equal numbers of boys and girls on each instrument? No, we would expect to see some 17% of boys on the "female" and the same 17% of the girls on the "male" (this is grossly simplified, as there are of course instruments which are neither just as there is a middle brain type called "balanced).

So, a complete absence of gender stereotyping could still (assuming the truth of the theory of course) lead to an unequal outcome as measured by gender. No, this isn't very important when considering children's instruments, of course, but it does have some rather larger implications when considering career choices and the performance and gender segregation in the larger economy.

Implications which many seem not to be aware of: the lack of equal numbers of men and women in a field or profession is not (necessarily) evidence of gender stereotyping.

I do like this though:

Professor Hallam said: “The world would be a poorer place if James Galway had been discouraged from playing the flute and Evelyn Glennie had been told that girls shouldn’t become percussionists.”

Indeed it would be a poorer place, but if you had told Ms. Glennie this I don't think she would have listened. She's deaf you see.