Paucity of Female College Band Directors as Faculty and Conductors at National Conferences in the United States, 2017–2018

Research indicates that women hold far fewer positions as collegiate band directors than do their male counterparts; however, since the 1993–1994 academic year, there have been no updated statistics describing the sex ratio of women who are college band directors. As the wind band profession is putting more effort into diversity initiatives and women are becoming more accepted as conductors, an examination of current sex (female and male) representation of band directors seemed timely and necessary. The purpose of this study was to provide updated data. Using the College Music Society Directory of Music Faculties in Colleges and Universities, U.S. and Canada 2017–2018, the author of the present study looked at the sex of college band directors listed and discovered that only 11.3 percent of all college band director positions in the United States were held by women. Furthermore, only 13.4 percent of bands selected to perform at the Midwest Clinic were led by women in the ten occurrences of the conference between 2009 and 2018, and only 5.3 percent of bands selected to perform at the Collegiate Band Directors National Association at the fourteen national conferences held between 1993 and 2019 had women as their head conductors. Clearly, sex parity does not yet exist among university band directors. With the publication of more current percentages of the representation of women as band directors that this study provides, research investigating why this phenomenon continues and advocacy to change the status quo is highly recommended.