Abstract Female Trombonists’ Experiences of Gender Bias Em Poff and Dr. Alison Deadman, Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Compared with their male counterparts, female trombonists are underrepresented throughout the United States especially in collegiate teaching positions. Does this underrepresentation cause fewer females to pursue playing the trombone and does gender bias play a role? After discussing the historical roles and excepted musical instruments for women to play during the 19th century, this document makes note of many women who were able to surpass societal norms and make their own musical choices. The purpose of this study is to discover if gender bias towards female trombonists exists and if it is a relevant negative factor in the experiences of and musical opportunities open to female trombonists today. This study and the survey questions were inspired by Melissa Ewing’s dissertation, Examining the Under-Representation of Female Euphonium Players in the USA. In order to create a trombone-centered survey, I modified Ewing’s survey questions and added other questions to help gain useful information from female trombone students and trombone professors. I limited my study to 4-year universities in the United States. The names of trombone professors were collected from the College Music Society directory. These professors were surveyed and asked to provide their own gender identity as well as the gender ratio of their studio. In addition, they were asked to forward a survey focused on the college experience of female-identifying trombonists to their female-identifying students. My study will serve as a resource for future research on female-identifying trombonists and gender studies in general regarding musical instruments.

Female trombonists are underrepresented throughout the United States especially in collegiate teaching positions. Is the underrepresentation of female trombonists as professional musicians and teachers causing less females to pursue playing the trombone? After discussing the expected roles of females and acceptable instruments for women to play during the 1800’s, this document mentions many women who were able to surpass the norms of female musicians and make their own musical choices. The purpose of this study is to discover if there is any relevance of gender bias towards female trombonists in society today and potentially determine how these biases affect their musical opportunities. This study and the survey questions were inspired by Melissa Ewing’s dissertation, Examining the Under-Representation of Female Euphonium Players in the USA, which examined the lack of female euphonium players in the United States. In order to create a trombone-centered survey, I used questions from Ewing’s survey as a guide while adding other questions to help gain useful information from trombone professors and female-identifying trombone students in the USA. The names of college trombone professors in the United States were collected from the College Music Society directory and this determined the professors who were surveyed and asked to provide their studio gender ratio and questions about identifying as female when applicable. In addition, the professors forwarded the student survey invitation to female-identifying students in their studios to provide their individual experiences as female trombonists in college. This document will serve as a resource for future studies on female-identifying trombonists and gender studies in general regarding music education and performance.