In the spring semester of 2002, I interviewed four women at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. All of the women worked in some capacity as musicians, either as performers, musicologists, or music educators (and in most cases, they did some combination of the three). I asked them to discuss their early music experiences, and I was particularly interested to know how they got started in their respective band programs. In keeping with the objective studies highlighted in Chapter One, I narrowed my inquiries to people who played traditional band instruments, both wind and percussion. I also used these studies to help guide my choice of specific instrumentalists: using the generally accepted gender-based stereotypes associated with the instruments, I purposely sought out women who played the most polarized instruments, or those which were associated most strongly with one sex or the other. This eliminated such instruments as saxophone, cello, french horn, and piano, which were consistently labeled “gender neutral” by children and adults alike. Therefore, I was interested in people who played low brass instruments, percussion (both considered to be masculine), and high woodwinds (considered to be feminine).

I sent invitations to individuals to participate in the interviews through email letters (see Appendix). While my original intention had been to include both women and men in the discussion, I had difficulty stirring interest in the men I contacted. The women, on the other hand, seemed not only willing to help, but quite eager to participate in the study; this was particularly true of women who played male-stereotyped instruments. I initially contacted four women and six men; of this group, all four women and two of the men responded and said that they would be willing to participate. The men played flute and euphonium. The women played flute (2), percussion, and trombone. While the men were often unable to share much insight on the issue of gender differentiation in music education or presented contradicting statements on the topic, the women were thoughtful and articulate about the ways in which they have experienced their gender in the music world. Their comments, as well as the men's, are transcribed in their entirety in the appendix of this document. The following is a compendium of their thoughts, experiences, and memories, which shed a rather revealing light on the music educational process as it now seems to exist in America.

As a young girl, approval from friends, family, and teachers is crucial (Barbieri 1995). This may be related to the fact that girls are often punished more severely for misbehaving, and the list of behaviors considered inappropriate for girls is much longer than the list for boys. When girls do not act accordingly, they are often banned from the activity they have disrupted, while boys’ misbehavior is considered less offensive, and perhaps even expected: “boys will be boys” (Green 1997, 191). In the cases of Sunnie, Jeanie, Colleen, and Melanie, others' opinions and behaviors played very important roles in who these women have become as musicians today and how they have been allowed to participate in the field of music. As Lucy Green and Betty Hanley have stressed, the position of role model is conferred upon many, and the responsibility of that position cannot be overly stressed (Hanley 1998).

It was a long and convoluted path which led each of these women to their current activities in music, and those paths were largely dictated, or at least shaped heavily, by the other people in their lives. Family members limited their choices, band directors ignored them, and friends taunted them. It is this network that is responsible for creating the next generation of musicians.

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