Spring Break
Jazz players sound off on men-to-women ratio
Kara Fordyce
Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: MULTIMEDIA
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Tenor saxophonist Ashley Hamer doesn't mind a man holding the door open for her, but when it comes to jazz, she doesn't want to be thought of as the girl in a group.
Hamer, a jazz studies graduate student, plays in the Five O'Clock Lab Band and repertory ensemble, both of which are marginally dominated by men.
And while the men sometimes tell dirty jokes in rehearsal and turn to her and apologize, Hamer said she can take it just as a man can.
"It's interesting being a woman in a male-dominated art form," said Hamer. "A lot of playing jazz, as I call 'macho music,' is about showing off, and women aren't taught that."
In fall 2008, 81 percent of the jazz studies program's 279 undergraduate and graduate students were men, while 19 percent were female, department head John Murphy said. The program's numbers for this semester were not made available.
"People sometimes treat us as a novelty, like we are rare to be seen playing in public," she said.
Jazz studies senior Andrea Bunton is the only female drummer in the jazz studies program, she said. When Bunton came to NT, she promised herself she wouldn't play the gender card as an excuse for failure. But when she did make mistakes, it was based on her own playing, she said.
"It is ingrained in young women - in order to endeavor into something, you must try to be perfect," Bunton said.
While it's sometimes hard to distinguish between shyness and discrimination, she said she's felt subtle gender discrimination from men in the jazz program.
One specific instance occurred when she was trying to find a replacement for a gig she couldn't take. When Bunton started to ask someone to take it, he slammed the door in her face, she said.
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