Gender disparities in music education and music-making amongst the Swedish adult population

Sam de Boise, a Senior Lecturer and Docent of Musicology at the School of Music, has conducted a study in which he uses carefully selected statistical methods to analyze data from a survey conducted by SIFO Kantar. The survey was adapted to reflect Sweden's demographic composition in terms of gender, age, region, income, occupation and level of education.
The study found striking differences in how the interaction between gender and age affected instrument playing. In the survey's youngest age group, 18-29 years, women were in the majority when it comes to making music: 20% stated that they played an instrument, while the corresponding figure for men was 17%. But already in the age group 30-49 years, the distribution had changed drastically. The proportion of men who were still playing was largely unchanged (16%), while almost half of women had stopped, and only 10% of them were still playing. A clear difference is also visible in childhood: 29% of men but as many as 59% of women had played an instrument but stopped before the age of 18. It is easy to see this as an expression of social norms; de Boise writes that

"there is often strong parental pressure for girls in particular to take up instruments which can be partly explained by gendered norms around musicianship as emphasizing refinement and cultivation appropriate to middle class visions of femininity"

The fact that some girls stop playing early in life can then be explained by the fact that many of them have not been very motivated, but have started playing to fit in or please their parents. For men, on the other hand, the social structures look different. The study shows that they have greater musical confidence than women even when the groups have the same level of musical skills. For men, it is instead in adulthood that making music becomes an identity. The choice of instrument also becomes an important factor that determines which men continue their musicianship into adulthood. The study also shows that there are very clear patterns in the choice of instruments between the two sexes.

Find the published article here