Klarinet Archive - Posting 001384.txt from 2000/04

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Gender bias - survey?
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 12:38:43 -0400

Emily=A0S wrote:

<><> Well, not really anonymous. The ones of us that write
regularly are pretty easy to tell. I'm assuming that Emily, or Bill,
Paulette, Nancy, Don....etc are pretty self-explanatory

Hi, Emily. I read somewhere that you should state your conclusion
first and then defend it.
So, in conclusion, I _do_ agree that the more prominent or dramatic
instances are interesting and sigificant in their own right. But they
don't necessarily show what is happening in the larger everyday world.
I suspect that the standard deviation of males vs. females in bands,
orchestras, ensembles, etc is so large that we cannot hope to gather a
sample of sufficient size that would justify a conclusion.

Somebody posted (I've already lost it, and I can't remember who)
that he or she checked 192 recent messages from this list, and males
accounted for (I forget) maybe 80% of the messages. While I enjoy and
have participated myself in this discussion, no statistician would
accept any conclusion that emerged from this survey unless it included
an analysis of whether posting on the Internet is, in fact, biased
towards males -- and also whether predominantly only the more notable
instances are attracting notice and therefore are being posted here.

Cheers,
Bill
(who wishes there was a clear answer to this question and -- if you care
-- wouldn't be bothered if clarinetists proved to be either mostly male
or mostly female -- music is music, and I'm a male, and I like playing
the clarinet, and I'm having better luck at it than when I tried and
failed to learn guitar and then piano.)

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