Gender in Band, male /female

[Bob Thompson]

Just a thought , how many bands still dont have females in them, is this by choice, design................?

My personal opinion,.........anyone shoud be allowed to join, competency etc accepted.
Any thoughts?

 

[BreadOfHeaven]

Grimethorpe are still all-male are they not?? At least they were the last time I saw them.

At the end of the day if the band is happy with that arrangement then so be it. Should be left up to them imo.

 

[CaharleyFarley]

Well IMHO, these days, if a brass band doesn't have the fairer sex as members, maybe summat is up with the band?

Almost every band I know has many female players, and again IMHO, without being sexist, they have more to offer than males.

The ladies, I find, in banding are totally focused in what they do, and want to achieve. The males, get distracted easily..........

WOW...almost can't believe I wrote that.....

Its a fact of life guys - you see it in the "work place" all the time now.

Watch out Roger W.........a women is after your spot :wink:

 

[JessopSmythe]

What do you mean, we get distrac.......


Sorry, what was I saying?

 

[Okiedokie of Oz]

While we have a couple of women, and a few more girls (as a young male, I distinguish between the two), I get frustrated by a women's prioritising skills.

Blokes in bands manage to fit their timetables around everything. Work til 5, dinner @ 5: 30, leave for band at 6 for a 6:30 start. The lasses however, feel every change in the routhine is sooooo special and everything must be dropped to accomodate it !!!! :wink:

LOL, just kidding. It just feels at times like women would rather drop band for whatever, whereas the blokes would rather go to band than go to the whatever.

slightly off topic, but has anyone had any problems with female committee members?????????????

 

[Moy]

We have 7 females in our band at the moment....
Strange thing is I have more female pupils than male in school, and they girls work harder than the boys.

 

[Chunky]

In our band it is a 50 / 50 split between males and females. In fact quite often the females out-number the males at rehearsals! No wonder our conductor is always smiling.

Is there a prize for most females in a band at the Leicester contest this weekend?

 

[Seedhouse]

The ladies, I find, in banding are totally focused in what they do, and want to achieve. The males, get distracted easily..........

Please remember there are also males that are focused on what they do. I agree that there are more females who are focused, but there are males (although fewer in number) who focus as well!

I think you also must remember that some people are in banding as a hobby, whilst others are in it perhaps as a career, or if they are professional musicians/ teachers.

Although there are bands that still have entirely male members, there are female bands such as Trinity Girls who have entirely female members. (although there were two male players at the nationals :? ) I know that this is the history of the band, but just wanted to point it out.

 

[Dolly]

While we have a couple of women, and a few more girls (as a young male, I distinguish between the two), I get frustrated by a women's prioritising skills.

Blokes in bands manage to fit their timetables around everything. Work til 5, dinner @ 5: 30, leave for band at 6 for a 6:30 start. The lasses however, feel every change in the routhine is sooooo special and everything must be dropped to accomodate it !!!! :wink:

LOL, just kidding. It just feels at times like women would rather drop band for whatever, whereas the blokes would rather go to band than go to the whatever.

slightly off topic, but has anyone had any problems with female committee members?????????????

I dissagree, I think females are more committed altogether, especially in youth band. I know I VERY rarely drop band for anything, even at the moment when between now and December 25th I have two contests in among numerous Christmas concerts and am at band currently every single day of the week!

 

[johnflugel]

Let's stop this one before it goes any further!!! Could get nasty!

Fact: There are slack males and slack females, there are committed males and committed females. Every situation is different: no general rules to say whether all male policy is better or not. All male bands like B&R, Faireys and Grimethorpe are all succesful bands, but then again so are Fodens, Cory, YBS, Leyland and my band ofcourse :wink:

In a work situation, I would prefer an all male office, not for any sexist reasons but just purely from experience when I have seen clashes of personality which were down to gender and male/female ego. In banding however it's different: it's a traditionally male 'pursuit' which started to even out towards the back end of the last century. The ladies involved in banding are a special 'breed' They are more geared up to deal with us blokes than normal the average lady.

John
Rothwell Temps

 

[Seedhouse]

Let's stop this one before it goes any further!!! Could get nasty!

Agreed!
This is one of those threads, in which everyone has their own different views so that it'd probably end in an argument. :?

 

[Despot]

We have 7 females in our band at the moment....
Strange thing is I have more female pupils than male in school, and they girls work harder than the boys.

I think that's a general thing with music..be it brass, woodwind, percussion. In my situation, I always had more girls than boys. They start out great, but generally speaking are far, far more likely to give up than boys. I've been teaching now for many years, and hear the same from other teachers.

I'm not trying to get into to "who's better" argument. It's nothing to do with boys or girls being better. I think it's because girls are generally involved in more outside activities, whereas boys tend to focus on one or two. Also, during those teenage years, girls are more likely to be influenced by what their friends think. Because of this, I think its a simple matter of a higher percentage of boys who take up music will be playing as adults than girls, which is part of why many bands are mostly male. And brass is sometimes seen as more "masculine" when compared with other instruments.

Nothing to do with one sex having anymore ability than the other.

 

[Steve]

Women in banding is great. If I had wanted to spend all my weekends surrounded by blokes I would have carried on playing Rugby. It is a hobby where both have as good a chance of success as the other and that's one of the things that makes banding special. Can you imagine going to the area and it being all men or all women, how boring would that be!!!!

 

[Seedhouse]

I'm not trying to get into to "who's better" argument. It's nothing to do with boys or girls being better. I think it's because girls are generally involved in more outside activities, whereas boys tend to focus on one or two. Also, during those teenage years, girls are more likely to be influenced by what their friends think. Because of this, I think its a simple matter of a higher percentage of boys who take up music will be playing as adults than girls, which is part of why many bands are mostly male. And brass is sometimes seen as more "masculine" when compared with other instruments.

Completely agree with what you've said Despot

 

[drummerboy]

I think that, where possible, that the best person for job should get it. If that is a woman so be it. Just look at YBS and Sheona White (as one example, there are many others). I would say the best person for the job.

 

[JANUARYMAN]

More the merrier. Hepworth is full of brass band babes! Our 2nd Euph had the best seat in the house at Formby Hall on Sunday night, Emma Farrow on his left and Helen Tyler (dep for the night) on his right. He was hot under the collar before we had played a note!

Dave
Hepworth

 

[shedophone]

Being a female 'bander' i guess i'm not meant to disagree with having lasses in brass bands. However, i do sort of understand why bands would not have female members. Currently, Grimey, B&R, Faireys still don't have women (I helped out at a joint Grimey's and Faireys concert a while ago, so they dont seem to be as strict about it as they used to be- i did get some funny looks though!)
As musicians and bandsmen, women have just as much to offer as men and they should be able to play alongside men in bands up to the highest level. I can kind of see the point of bands who dont do this yet though, having women in a band seems to cause much more of the rivalry and scandal we all know so well....
(How many bands have lost players/conductors etc because of upset husbands/partners etc etc......? )
Saying that, bands who dont take on women limit themselves greatly in choosing players, there are so many fantastic female musicians around and not enough top bands for them all! 8)

 

[PeterBale]

Until fairly recently, there were a number of Salvation Army bands that had no female players, either because of a (rather dubious) policy decision, or because no women had wanted to join. For whatever reason, other churches have often looked with envy at the Army because the bands did/do attract/keep a group of men involved with church activities, when many churches have a predominance of female parishioners. When church growth principles are applied, the band would be seen not specifically as a musical organisation, but rather as a fellowship group, and a group of 20 or 30 men in a church would be a source of envy to many congregations.

I think it is probably true to say that, even now, there is a smaller proportion of women active in SA banding, but that may well be due, at least in part, to other church activities that they may be involved in. Once child care arrangements are taken into account, it may not be possible, for example, for both husband and wife to be out at practice on the same night, so it may be that one will play in the band whilst the other jin the songsters (choir).

I think it is a shame that, in the past, some players were excluded from participation in banding on grounds of their gender, and I am glad to see things are changing.

 

[Bob Thompson]

Just for reference, the thread wasn't intended as a debate re who are better players, male or female, as ability is ability is ability regardless of gender.........but there are some bands who have a definate lack of female members. I wondered why, and if this was the 'mans domain' thing, lingering on in banding.

 

[euphonium_john]

Don't want to be controvesial, but I think it all started to go wrong when women got the vote!