Music and Gender Roles

The Roles that Gender Plays in Irish Traditional Music  

    In Ireland traditional music gender plays a huge role, for instance; a woman is less respected than a man, the music itself is unwilling to embrace change, and it is very gender bias towards change. The current instruments used in traditional Irish music are made for the large hands of men. The main priority of Irish traditional music is the music, the etiquette, and its tradition at the sacrifice of those involved, especially women. It is very hard as a woman to be accepted to play music, many times women are too intimidated and fall out of love with traditional Irish music. 

   

  A woman's role in Irish traditional music is much different than that of a man. A woman is in charge of teaching, administration and other organizational roles. A woman is under-represented at concerts or playings in the professional world. Not only are they under-represented their learning of traditional Irish music is affected as well. One girl once was told by a teacher ‘Girls can’t play pipes, they haven’t the lung capacity’. Even a woman's family connection could affect their ability to play music. While a man performs he is given alcohol as a reward or return of services, while a woman is not treated with the same hospitality. Alcohol in some cases made the music environment scary or uncomfortable for women.  If a woman is in a band with men only the men will receive the drinks, the woman are treated as if they aren't even there.  For women there is not only discrimination, but also a pay gap and a lack of code or protection. One girl stated that she was playing a gig and the guitarist asked her to unplug her fiddle and she was let to mime the rest of the performance. She also mentioned that she was told by a promoter that people didn't want to see or hear a girl singer/songwriter. 

    Women were often told that the instruments were too large for them and they needed to find a smaller one. Some instruments are for men to play such as; the guitar, and some instruments are for women to play such as; the flute. If a woman tries to buy an instrument for a man she is called out and it is made known that the instrument is for a man. Sometimes they are shown to a different instrument, one a girl should play. The article had a statement that illustrated this; "I am so fed up that it is so frequently assumed that I will be a bad guitarist because guitar is ‘not a woman’s instrument". 

    One gender bias of traditional Irish music is that most classes are for males, and if a female was to be in the class she would be made extremely uncomfortable. Women in traditional Irish music were seen as 'eye-candy' and if a woman was to see men this way she was 'a handful' or 'firey'. Women were left in the shadows when it came to recognition and contribution both professionally and non-professionally. One woman said “The women are often marginalized at best and abused at worst”. If a woman and a male are apart of the lead in a band the woman is often overlooked and questioned opposed to the male leader. The confidence of a woman musician is much lower than that of a male. This is because women lack practice, experience, and participation due to the gender biases of traditional Irish music. Women have to work twice as hard as a man for similar recognition. With such a low confidence women have a more difficult time trying to challenge the discrimination and bias in the music industry. 

    Those women who do participate in Irish traditional music are subject to sexual assault, male violence, aggression, and domination. Some women experienced bullying, threats and even apprehension for challenging or going against a man in the music industry. They were used as an outlet of a man's aggression, anger, and frustration. Numerous women were analyzed for their great talent and success in traditional Irish music. Many were chosen to perform with bands just based upon their looks. A woman's appearance was put before her music talent and ability. 

    Even though men were able to still proform music after they had children a woman could not. Many who were mothers had enough to deal with at home to fight against this. Those who were in a relationship with there bandmember were often seen for their boyfriend. They would often only be accepted into a group just because of the boyfriend. In some cases this could be dangerous for the woman as it is seen from the quote "I have also witnessed a very close female friend and talented musician be subjected to abuse and misogynistic behaviour by a powerful musician ex-boyfriend. He has used that power many times to stop other musicians engaging with her, to prevent her playing where she likes or prevent her playing with certain people." 

( https://www.ictm.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/121-Stories-The-impact-of-gender-on-participation-in-Irish-traditional-music-Una-Monaghan-Ethnomusicology-Ireland-7.pdf )