Musicians Contact Asks: Where Are All the Female Musicians?

We all know there are about the same number of males as females in the U.S. and in the entire world. But the ratio between performing male and female MUSICIANS is about thirty to one, and this ratio has stayed nearly the same since Musicians Contact started 53 years ago! I am not including front female vocalists in this statistic – the number of male and female front singers has always been close to equal. But……..

What happens to all of the female musicians we see in college marching bands, orchestras, and the millions taking lessons when they are growing up? It’s not like playing an instrument could be considered a “masculine” job, like construction work or auto mechanics or whatever might be labeled..

Why do so few women go on to play professionally, or even part time? . . .
> > > > > > > >
Go here to read the rest of the blog:
https://www.musicianscontact.com/blog/where-are-all-the-female-musicians-2

info@MusiciansContact.com

# # # # #

Reply to the Lack of Female Musicians

Our last blog focused on exploring the reasons behind the lack of female musicians playing in live bands. You can read it here: https://www.musicianscontact.com/blog/

We received some great feedback and usually we print a bunch of replies but guitarist Dylan Galvin wrote such a good one which summed up everything we tried to say, so here is his reply in it’s entirety:

*********
I’ve been a professional musician since 2009 and I’ve worked with many males and females on many different projects. I don’t think there is evidence to suggest the low number of female musicians is due to sexism in the industry or men trying to keep them out. There are plenty of men who would probably prefer to work with females. However, it seems that when you allow men and women to freely choose career paths, they simply do not want to all do the same things at an exact 50/50 ratio.

I think although the title “musician” is not necessarily masculine or feminine, there are certain instruments that will lean towards having an appeal to men over women or women over men.
There are significantly more female harp players than male harp players in the music industry. I can assure you, there are no barriers preventing men from playing harp. There is no sexism keeping them from doing so. Most men just don’t want to. It is not an instrument that has a large appeal to most men.
> > > > > > > > >
Read the rest of Dylan’s retort here:
https://www.musicianscontact.com/blog/reply-lack-female-musicians

Strong Women meme
From Sheila E’s Facebook page | https://www.facebook.com/SheilaEDrummer/