Gender and music: can we hear a difference between female and male composers and performers?

This research investigates whether or not gender is perceptible in classical music. In order to test this hypothesis, different ideas such as the history of women in music, the various roles they have or have not played, and different characteristics of music that are considered “masculine” or “feminine” were examined. A survey was used to determine if these characteristics were audible. Specifically, participants were asked to try to identify the gender of the composer and performer of five different audio clips. This data was then broken down into categories that include the participant’s gender, age, and amount of musical experience. This thesis will discuss how the past has impacted music today and how this can be seen through the results of the survey. It will show that correctly identifying gender is random, but various characteristics in the music make the listener lean a certain way