Study 1: Music classroom, compulsory school, grade 9

The Swedish National Agency for Education is responsible for reviewing the quality of education in Sweden. An evaluation is made on a regular basis as a part of the agency's quality mission. During the year 2013 Music as a subject was evaluated in the Swedish compulsory school (lower secondary). The report (Skolverket/The Swedish National Agency for Education, 2015) consists of two parts, one quantitative and one qualitative. The empirical data of the qualitative part is underlying this discussion. The aim of the qualitative part of the evaluation was to deepen the results of the questionnaire sent out to the pupils. One of the central topics to be followed up was the gender issue, since the questionnaire showed that the students’ final music grades co-vary with sex, in favour of the girls.

The empirical data of the qualitative study comprises a total of 30 video-recorded classroom observations, ten audio-recorded interviews with teachers and ten audio-recorded focus group talks with pupils in grade 9, produced during autumn 2013. Ten classes at ten different schools were selected from a variety of parameters as size of school, geographic location, the students’ socio-economic and ethnic background as well as the profile and governing of the school. One of the classes was a so-called music class, with extended time in music.

The results show that in eight out of ten school classes involved in the study, no gender-marked performance specific for the music classroom context was observed. That is, division of labour, power and symbolic relations (Connell, Reference CONNELL2009) were not gendered specifically in relation to music – even though the focus was playing within the pop and rock genres, i.e. genres that research has highlighted as emphasizing normative masculinity (Whiteley, Reference WHITELEY1997; Leonard, Reference LEONARD2007; Björck, Reference BJÖRCK2011). In these eight school classes leading positions in the groups were connected to pupils with knowledge in music, as it was constructed in the discursive practice, rather than to construction of gender explicitly. Sometimes girls with any proficiency on an instrument acted as rehearsal directors and pushed the activity forward, and on other occasions more knowledgeable boys took responsibility for the group's musicianship. In contrast, the pupils with no knowledge or interest in music did not participate in playing music at all. Instead they devoted their attention to performing gender in relation to aspects that were not specifically connected to the music classroom as a context for learning music. For example, the girls who did not have an interest or knowledge in school-music were performing normative femininity (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006; Connell, Reference CONNELL2000) during class by putting on make-up, and the boys with poor discursive school-music knowledge or interest were constructing normative masculinity (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006; Connell, Reference CONNELL2000) by watching violent films on YouTube.

In two school classes, however, normative gender performance were observed regarding musical instrument preferences (Abeles, Reference ABELES2009; Wych, Reference WYCH2012), but the pupils’ motivation for gender marking the instruments differed between the two school contexts. The first school, in which gender-marked instrument preferences were observed, offered specialized music classes with a choral profile, where pupils had to pass vocal entrance exams before being accepted. The pupils in this context were very ambitious and interested in singing, and a majority were also musically active in their spare time. All the pupils were skilled in choir singing and several of them had plans for a career as a professional singer. Only three of the 30 pupils in this chorally profiled class were boys, and even though they were good singers they had to work hard positioning themselves as singers. By claiming space with their bodies and voices (Björck, Reference BJÖRCK2011), as boys often do when constructing a normative masculine discourse (Connell, Reference CONNELL2000; Skelton, Francis & Smulyan, Reference SKELTON, FRANCIS and SMULYAN2006; Abramo, Reference ABRAMO2011), they managed to manoeuvre in a normatively feminine and chorally profiled classroom context. A context that can be seen as an example of what Freer (Reference FREER2010) calls ‘the missing males problem’ (18), i.e. a musical context where girls when singing dominate the class room with their sound and their bodies, since boys are either missing or, as in this case, are represented by under ten per cent.

In the other school class, where gender in relation to instrument preferences was at stake, a gendered division of labour (Connell, Reference CONNELL2009) was constructed, so that all the girls played the keyboard using headphones, and all the boys played the guitar. However, only a small number of the pupils in this class seemed to be interested in learning music, and none of them were playing an instrument in their spare time. The division of labour had, according to the girls in this school, therefore nothing to do with instrument preferences, but was rather a strategy the girls used, a pragmatic way of dealing with grades in their schoolwork, regardless of subject, without getting disturbed by what was talked of as ‘noisy boys’. Thus the girls searched for what can be seen as a room of their own (Björck, Reference BJÖRCK2011), playing the keyboard with headphones on, in order to fulfil a school assignment that happened to be in music. A general conclusion regarding this school, like in other schools where pupils had minimal school-musical discursive knowledge, is that the girls appeared more often than not to be motivated and focused on achieving a good score in music. The boys in these schools tended to a greater extent than the girls to devote themselves to other activities than music tasks. Some of these boys also stated in interviews that they did not understand the point of music education in schools – no matter genre or musical instrument.

The fact that no clear gender-coded positions were visible in the music classroom in nine of the schools, despite the focus on pop and rock music, seems to be related to the general low level of musicianship and knowledge in the discursive school-music practice in compulsory school. The pupils did not master the instruments, or show interest, a fact that appeared to neutralise gendered division of labour, gender-marked power relations and gendered symbolic relations such as gender-coded instruments. In the tenth school however, the vocal music classroom, singing was connected with a normative feminine discourse (Green, Reference GREEN1997; Freer, Reference FREER2010) since almost all of the pupils were girls. In this classroom there was also a connection between how knowledge in music was constructed in school and how it was performed in spare time activities.

Study 2: Music classroom, upper secondary school with a music profile

As mentioned earlier adolescents in Sweden who have a special interest in music often choose so called Aesthetic programmes when applying to upper secondary schools. These pupils, who usually have to pass entrance exams in music, thus make an active choice in favour of music. One purpose of teaching in these three-year programmes is to prepare students for the entrance exams to higher music education. Conditions and discursive frameworks for musical learning differ therefore from the mandatory music education in primary schools.

In analysing the school context described above, data from Borgström Källén (Reference BORGSTRÖM KÄLLÉN2014) is used. The aim of this study was to problematise how gender in interplay with practice of genre is constructed when musical learning is expressed as a crucial part of pupils’ identity. Hence, the study investigates the interplay between gender and genre practice based on the empirical findings from eight ensemble groups. The study adopted an ethnographic approach (Hammersley, Reference HAMMERSLEY2006; Walford Reference WALFORD2009), and data from 71 students, aged 16 to 19, was produced during a period of one year. The groups selected represented two pop/rock ensembles, two composing groups, one jazz ensemble, one early music ensemble and two vocal ensembles. Classes, rehearsals, concerts and breaks were documented continuously through fieldnotes from participant observations, group interviews and, in part, written documents that provided a background to the participants' context. Data were mainly analysed within a gender theoretical framework (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006; Connell, Reference CONNELL2000, Reference CONNELL2005, Reference CONNELL2009). In order to deepen the analysis the gender theoretical framework was complemented by the concepts cultural capital (Bourdieu, Reference BOURDIEU1996, Reference BOURDIEU1998) for understanding students’ musical background and by the panoptic gaze (Foucault, 1974/Reference FOUCAULT2003) for analysing the self-disciplining body in musical actions. Genre was analysed as a socially constructed discourse and practice (Fabbri, Reference FABBRI, Horn and Tagg1982; Walser Reference WALSER1993; Chanan, Reference CHANAN2000).

The study shows that construction of gender is highlighted in almost every situation where the participants make music together. Firstly, it points out that the opportunities the pupils are offered choosing the instruments and the repertoire contribute to a gender-marked restricted acting space since their choices are gendered. For example: Almost all the girls were singers and took vocal lessons. None of the girls played the drums and no boy played the keyboard. In the vocal ensembles, in total 26 pupils, only two boys participated and in the pop/rock ensemble groups none of the boys were singing. A majority of the bass players and guitarists were boys.

Secondly, the study shows that cultural capital (Bourdieu, Reference BOURDIEU1998) is crucial for reducing effects of gendered performances for girls, but not to the same extent for boys playing ensemble. This was evident especially for four girls who have had additional education in music since early childhood and who had parents being professional musicians. They claimed space with sound and body (Björck, Reference BJÖRCK2011) in a way that girls with less cultural capital avoided.

Thirdly, findings show that gender in this context is performed and emphasized in different ways depending on genre. In pop/rock, in the composing groups and in vocal ensemble practice division of labour and power and symbolic relations are clearly gender-marked, while gendered performance is less articulated and expressed in the early music and in the jazz ensembles. When taking gender as the point of departure the ensemble groups in the study are analysed as divided into three gender-marked genre discourses: The vocal ensemble genre discourse, the popular genre discourse, including both the pop/rock ensembles and the composing groups, and the school music genre discourse, comprising the early music and the jazz ensembles. Findings suggest that the vocal and the popular genre discourses work as a binary opposition (McQuillan, Reference McQUILLAN2000), as they maintain a heteronormative dichotomy (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006) and since a hierarchical relation is constructed subordinating the vocal discourse. This subordinated position is understood in relation to the large number of girls in the vocal groups, but also as a consequence of the exposure the popular genre discourse has in the everyday life of the pupils (Lindgren & Ericsson, Reference LINDGREN and ERICSSON2010).

Significant for the discourse labelled school music is that it constructs gender and genre in interplay partly from other premises than the ones that are constructed in the popular and vocal practices. That is, the pupils are playing pop/rock and singing in choirs in formal and informal contexts outside school, while early music and jazz are only being played in school. The pupils in the early music and in the jazz ensembles are therefore offered gender constructions that are not directly a reproduction of previous musical experiences. Hence, the study concludes that gender is socially embodied (Connell, Reference CONNELL2009) more normatively in music practices that are represented in pupils’ everyday life outside school, while practices that are to be understood as unfamiliar from a pupil's perspective, displays less gendered performances. Therefore, the school music genre practice creates a possibility to resignify (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006) gendered performances of ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ in musical action.

Finally, the pupils’ ambitions to show their musical skills combined with their admiration for the professional musicians’ arena, constructed requests to have concerts as often as possible. The findings show that, although the pupils improve their musical skills when performing, this tends to reinforce gendered patterns in the music classroom and on stage. That is, it gives priority to rehearsal efficiency rather than to the development of musical knowledge yet to be acquired by the pupils. The focus on musical performances thus makes the process of change when constructing music in interplay with gender inert, since less time is allotted to find gender-neutral ways of learning. Thus intentions towards performing before an audience tend to reinforce heteronormative gender constructions in musical action, since the division of labour and the power relations are governed by professional music life discourses where performances often are gender-marked.

Study 3: Music classroom, higher music education

Previous research shows that the genres of jazz/improvisation and world/folk music have been, and perhaps still are, strictly gendered (Green, Reference GREEN1997; Annfelt, Reference ANNFELT2003; McKeage, Reference McKEAGE2004; Caudwell, Reference CAUDWELL2010; Johansson, Reference JOHANSSON2013). That is, women and non-heterosexual men are described as underrepresented and subordinated both in the public arena and in higher music education, and when represented it is more often than not as singers and violin players.

The data in focus in study 3 (Borgström Källén, Reference BORGSTRÖM KÄLLÉN and Olofsson2012) was produced within the project Music and Gender, conducted at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg. Data was produced from 2010 to 2011 in the Bachelor programmes for World/Folk and Improvisational music where, at the time of the study, around 75 per cent of the students were men (Olofsson, Reference OLOFSSON2012). Due to demanding entrance exams and a limited number of places (approximately 15 out of 300 applicants are accepted annually), almost all of the students who are finally accepted have studied music for several years in preparatory settings.

The objective of this study was to problematise aspects of gender, such as heteronormative discourses and the underrepresentation of women, aiming to increase understanding of how norms of gender in interplay with musical action contribute and/or restrict scope of action for the students in the above-mentioned programmes.

Methodologically the study was based on participants’ observations (Hammersley, Reference HAMMERSLEY2006), and some 40 students wrote fieldnotes anonymously after every ensemble lesson they attended during a period of six months. The students were asked, when observing their own ensemble, to focus on describing as detailed as possible what happened in class and how they responded/reacted. They were not asked specifically to look for aspects they related to gender, although they were fully aware of the purpose of the study. Instead they were told to pay attention to division of labour and power relations when interacting with the group. After every five weeks the fieldnotes were analysed and thematised from a gender perspective (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006; Connell, Reference CONNELL2000), and followed up by discussions in focus groups.

The findings suggest that gender from several aspects contributed or/and restricted students’ musical actions in the ensemble room. Not surprisingly bearing previous research in mind (Annfelt, Reference ANNFELT2003; McKeage, Reference McKEAGE2004; Caudwell, Reference CAUDWELL2010, Johansson, Reference JOHANSSON2013), the result shows gendered representations of the instruments the students are specializing in. That is, women are underrepresented in every instrument except the voice and the violin. The singers, all but one positioned as females, describe a power relation between singers and instrumentalists, where the singers were positioned as subordinated. But it is complicated to talk about representation here, labelling instrumentalists from a binary perspective, since some of the instrumentalists seen as women are constructing a fluid gender performance (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006). A paradox is therefore that these instrumentalists, playing male dominated instruments, are positioned by the context as representing women playing unexpected instruments, although they are identifying themselves as beyond a binary understanding of gender (Butler, 1990/1999/Reference BUTLER2006).

Gendered patterns were also shown when the students talked about gender in relation to a possible future as professional musicians in general. A majority of the students labelled as females expressed a feeling of relief when given the opportunity to talk about the gender inequality they had experienced in preparatory school settings. At the same time they described feelings of discomfort when raising gender-related issues, especially if it concerned equality in the ensemble room. They feared that the issue would mark them as difficult to cooperate with, and they were concerned it would be disadvantageous for a career as a freelance musician. Students labelled as males stressed that they were raised to take equality between men and women for granted and they talked about gender issues as something for those who had a problem with it. By the end of the project a majority of the male students widened their understanding of gender to also include constraints that were related to heteronormative positions when playing music (Connell, Reference CONNELL2000). They asked for a less restricted construction of male musician, where it was accepted to show feelings of anxiety when rehearsing and still being regarded as a highly qualified musician. They also questioned the homosocial (Connell, Reference CONNELL2000) atmosphere in the ensemble room.

Furthermore, findings show that students labelled as females described division of labour as gendered during the ensemble lessons, while students labelled as males did not. The gendered divide was described as if the male students were allowed to focus on playing and discussing matters directly connected to music, whereas female students, especially singers, were expected taking responsibility for tasks such as to take notes for the next rehearsal, solving logistical problems when preparing for concerts and caring for the social and emotional atmosphere in the group.

Finally, the result shows that students and teachers expressed gendered norms of quality by gendering concepts used in every day practice. For example; when talking about quality in musical performances the concept personal expression was frequently used as something to strive for. The concept was difficult to define for both students and teachers, but they all claimed recognition when they heard it. The result suggests that personal expression was directly associated with the body only if the student was labelled as a woman. If a male student played what was depicted as a personal sound, then it was a personal expression. If a female student was recognized as playing with a personal expression, her playing was representing a female ability to express a specifically feminine interpretation. Female instrumentalists talked about being put on a pedestal by the teachers, expected to represent an undefined feminine expression when playing. These students feared that the attention and the space (Björck, Reference BJÖRCK2011) they perceived they were offered, being constructed as having a unique voice based on their supposed femininity, were counteracting their positions as professional performers. Hence, female instrumentalists experienced that space was conditioned; they had to adjust to expectations of performing a feminine expression.