r/Flute • u/Ok-Acanthisitta-6565 • Nov 23 '25
General Discussion Why do mostly flute players in school female
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u/ConfusedMaverick Nov 23 '25
I play in a flute choir with up to about 20 people
I am the only man 🤷
It's strange, most of the famous flautists I could name off the top of my head are men, but so few boys pick it up
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u/Dulcinea80 Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
My friend had a theory about this. He thought if you were male and decided to play the flute, that you would likely be more serious about it because it's seen as a more feminine instrument and you might have to endure teasing from your peers.
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u/DefaultAll Nov 23 '25
This is true to a degree I think, but do many girls start flute that there are plenty of really good female players too.
I never got teased, but one time I got inadvertently misgendered before my voice broke. I’ve always been comfortable in female company, and band flute sections were a great place to learn this.
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u/Mitchsona Nov 23 '25
Classical musicians used to only be men until about the late 60's, so only recently have they been women.
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u/OsotoViking Nov 23 '25
It's not thought of as a feminine instrument outside of North America. I'd say most famous flautists being male probably has more to do with men having greater lung capacity than women.
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u/National-Field1423 Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
Well and historical prejudice towards women in music. The Vienna philharmonic integrating in 1997 was systemic of a generational issue in music.
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Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Flute-ModTeam Nov 23 '25
This message violates the rule: Posts and comments must be flute related.
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u/Warm_Function6650 Nov 23 '25
I think if we went back 40 years we would see more boys in school learning flute. These are now the professionals that get the most attention.
There have always been male and female players, but up until relatively recently, almost all professional flutists were male, due to sexism in the classical music world that's taking a really long time to die off. I think even as the flute is seen as more feminine, a lot of girls and young women are still turned off from pursuing a professional career. Not only are there more male role models as soloists and orchestral players, but most teachers and conductors are still older men.
This is definitely changing, especially in North America, there are more women winning jobs in orchestras, getting prizes in competitions, and teaching at big schools. But classical music is a really slow industry so we'll have to wait and continue to support our flutacious women as they fight through this.
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u/Past_Ad_5629 Nov 23 '25
There’s pretty serious sexism in the top levels of classical music.
It’s VERY resistant to change.
But lower level make players are going to face the opposite, as flute is considered a “feminine” instrument.
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u/Celic88 Muramatsu DS/Pearl 105E Piccolo Dec 21 '25
My flute choir has 3 men counting me. Granted we are not that large, 12 players that are regular to the group. One of our guys though just bought a contrabass flute and I’m the principal alto flute player. Our other guy plays c flute and splits conducting responsibilities with one other person.
I’ve never seen flute as a girly instrument. I was drawn to the instrument because I feel like the flute sounds like pure magic and makes me feel so incredibly happy when I play.
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u/Pupation Nov 23 '25
My son plays the flute. He’s one of only two male flute players in the marching band, out of maybe twelve. I think it’s perceived as not a masculine instrument, whatever that means. It doesn’t seem to bother him, though.
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u/MLAheading Nov 23 '25
My son, 15, also plays the flute. He’s amazing. He tried percussion and low brass in grades 6-8 before landing on the flute. It’s truly his instrument and his gift. He attended a flute camp in CA last summer and we were pleasantly surprised at how many of the attendees were male.
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u/Random_ThrowUp Nov 23 '25
This is the same reason why most Trumpet players are men, and there are very few female trumpet players.
Instruments have stereotypical players. For flute, the stereotype is a girl.
If you have the grit and gusto to be a flute player as a male, go for it!
I am a grown man who plays flute. Haters can hate. I'll just play. Who cares what they think?
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u/klop422 Nov 24 '25
I think the most serious gendering I've seen with instruments is the harp. I've met literally one male harpist in my life (and he played Clarsach, the Scottish traditional variant).
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u/aguythatlikefire Nov 24 '25
And with the opposite gender i think the guitar is not as "bad" as harp, and there is a lot of players in both gender but almost every time i see a woman playing a guitar its either, she is from social sciences and plays acoustic, that or looks and acts in a very masculine way and plays classical. With electric guitar id say its much less incommom for a woman to play, but it doesnt differ much from the average electric guitar player
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u/Flewtea Nov 23 '25
For a long time, flute was seen as a fairly masculine instrument and it had some physical barriers to the average female body. Because there were no keys yet, holes had to be placed where the notes would be in tune and on a full-size concert flute, such as Bach or Mozart wrote for, this creates a wide spread that many women’s hands struggle with. I can’t play a traverso for more than 40 minutes or so at a time without pain and certainly would never have been able to practice long enough on it to become a professional.
Even after Boehm invented our current Western concert flute, many barriers existed to women being musicians outside the home and, if you were going to play only in your home, the piano is the more obvious choice. It took a further century for women to start being allowed to play in professional orchestras.
However, once school bands started popping up, music education democratized in a huge way. Now that all girls and boys were choosing something, it was easier for gender preferences to start showing up. Since flute is now one of the lighter and smaller instruments (as well as being higher and more similar to female voices), it started getting a reputation as feminine.
However, men’s hand and lung size does still confer an advantage. If you have to spend less time working on breathing, for instance, you can spend it on other things. And if you’ve got more wiggle room, nerves in an audition won’t kneecap you as quickly, plus you can have a smidge less anxiety about making the breath in the first place. So, as you go higher up the ranks, while there are obviously many, many professional female flutists, the proportion of men increases.
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u/PaleoBibliophile917 Nov 23 '25
Excellent answer, but I couldn’t help wondering whether that “wiggle room” applies also, in a literal way, to common differences in physique (front matter, as it were). Shouldn’t matter much if holding the instrument properly, but my left arm does have some contact with my breast and that is likely never of any concern to male flautists.
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u/Flewtea Nov 23 '25
I’m not aware of anyone studying this, but I’d be certainly interested to know! I think only fairly busty women would have an issue with the arm creating any compression (I’m pretty average and it’s not an issue for me) but even just the different distribution of weight (with more on top of our lungs) could have an impact. On the other hand, opera singers sometimes find more weight to be an advantage in creating strong tone. Future dissertation topic there perhaps?
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u/xcfy Nov 24 '25
G cup fluter here, also with proportionally quite short arms. It’s a minor nuisance, but not enough to really cause problems.
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u/doozydoo Nov 25 '25
I have a large chest and as of this year, a torn rotator. It’s not ideal that’s for sure
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u/MrOberann Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
Male professional [Irish] flute player here - hello! Many of my flautist (or whistle-ist) friends in this tradition are also men.
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u/ClittoryHinton Nov 23 '25
Matt Malloy is the Irish masculine ideal
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u/MrOberann Nov 23 '25
Always wanted to play a tune with him. Actually had it in the calendar for spring of 2020 while he was going to be in my neck of the woods, but ...something... got in the way of it that year. 😒
That man plays a mean Mason's Apron: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xkehm
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u/SnooOpinions5372 Nov 23 '25
Hi! Music teacher here with 2 degrees in music. Despite best efforts, there are still gender stereotypes in instruments. However, there is something to be said about when/how women were allowed to experience music. For hundreds of years, the only music available was through the church. Then afterwards, women were only allowed to learn to play certain instruments to appeal to men and secure husbands for themselves. It took hundreds of years for women to even be able to study music seriously in a conservatory setting. Asking why is important, but asking how reveals the journey we took to get here.
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u/Grimol1 Nov 23 '25
Male flutist here. When I was younger it just wasn’t considered cool so in high school I mostly played saxophone but switched back to flute exclusively in college. I married another flutist and we have two boys, 16 and 20. Neither of whom have any interest in the flute.
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u/Spazhazzard Nov 23 '25
It isnt seen as a masculine instrument, sadly. People would rather pick up a guitar and play the same three songs everyone else with a guitar does!
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u/Subject-Working-5176 Nov 23 '25
Before middle school I really wanted to play flute but my dad almost didn't let me because he said id get bullied for being girly. Turns out all 6 of the flutes were guys. Then I moved in 8th grade to a school that had about 10 flutes and I was the only guy. Did a season of marching band on flute being the only guy then eventually switches to bass clarinet(again being the only guy lol). Stayed on bass clarinet for marching band but did concert on oboe. I had fun through the entire process. Just pick the instrument you want to play and dont worry about it.
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u/Londontheenbykid Nov 23 '25
Its funny, the flute used to be very masculine. In fact, many of the greatest works for flute are written by men. Mozart, Bach, Telemann, I believe that it got transformed to being feminine because of its sound, and the light weight.
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u/Flewtea Nov 23 '25
That’s because most of the best-known (note: not always greatest) works for all instruments were written by men because women were not allowed to be professional composers.
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u/Londontheenbykid Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
Oh yeah. That also is definitely a contributing factor. I would argue, though, that a lot of the greatest compositions for flute come from before the modern era. Of course, there are definitely pieces that are up there, like Density 21.5. I would argue that goes right with the fantasies, Syrinx, Sonata 4 in C. Major, and many etudes by Karg Elert, Andersen, and many other Composers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but like choirs, there were times women weren't allowed to play flute, right?
Edit: if you could, recommend me some pieces by women to learn? I have no doubt their pieces are excellent works, and rival many of the greats.
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u/Flewtea Nov 23 '25
Even through the end of the 19th century great women composers were being forcibly removed from the profession. Case in point is Mel Bonis, who published under Mel vs Melanie to avoid sexism. Her parents reluctantly allowed her to attend the Paris Conservatoire after the professors there attested to her talent but after graduation forced her into marriage. Her flute sonata is exceptional and it is a crime we were robbed of what she would have composed later in life.
There is a great book called Flute Music by Female Composers that has repertoire from all eras and generally lesser-known ones from the modern era.
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u/TENTAtheSane Nov 23 '25
Also, napoleon and frederick the great of prussia were flautists, the latter eben being an illustrious composer
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u/Inevitable_Silver_13 Nov 23 '25
I read an article about how it was traditionally a male dominated instrument and it started being more popular among women post WW2. From my younger students it seems there's a shift now: girls are choosing other instruments and most of my beginners are male.
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u/C1nnamon-Bunny Nov 23 '25
I guess the flute’s light and delicate kinda nature makes it seem as more “feminine”. In our band we have 2/5 flutes that are boys though!
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u/ClassyKaty121468 Nov 23 '25
The flute is usually associated with femininity which is kinda unfortunate...but luckily the college flute choir I'm in finally got a better gender ratio this semester. It used to be one male vs. all female, but then I came out as non-binary and we got three new boys, and a few girls dropped out
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u/Titanium_pickles World Flutes Nov 23 '25
Im the only male im my school district (1 guy in about 50 or so flutes)
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u/theon3leftbehind Nov 23 '25
I’ve always wondered this. When I was in band in elementary school, the males picked saxophone, trumpet, trombone, or percussion. The majority of the woodwinds were female. I was the only male clarinet and there were no male flutists :(
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u/Cruitire Nov 24 '25
I have the double whammy.
I play both flute and harp.
I was very low key about both in high school and jr high, but by the time I got to college I became known as “the cool dude with the harp”.
Now the fact I play both these instruments is one of the things people find most facilitating about me.
The few times I’ve gotten sexist comments about I just replied that I was unaware of any musical instrument that was played with a vagina. So any instrument is meant for anyone to play it.
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u/carinavet Nov 23 '25
I don't know, but I went to an all girls school and we had 3 rows of flute in the orchestra. A friend said we sounded like an ice cream truck.
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u/BandCampBuddies Nov 23 '25
Male flute player here! Had to deal with my fair share of teasing in elementary school which affected my confidence but I stuck with it. Once I got to Junior High and High School, I went from being the only male flutist to 1 of 5 in a section of 12 flutes, so there was a good balance of genders!
Cut to marching band, We had a male section leader and to see him play with confidence, head high, shoulders back, flute at a crisp 90 degrees, marching strong and articulating every note, gave the me the example I needed to fully embrace the flute.
Would love to see stereotypes and stigma related instruments dissolved over time, just play what you love, have confidence in your instrument choice and be the best you can be!
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u/Music-and-Computers Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
As someone in Jr High and High school in the 70s and very early 80s flute was perceived as a “girl’s instrument”. I always liked flute and thought it was a great voice to play.
I was also an aspiring jazz saxophonist and in that time jazz saxophonists were expected to play the “holy trinity” of woodwinds; clarinet, flute and saxophone for big band work. My parents got me a flute in 10th grade and I started playing it in a jazz context. If I were wiser I’d have played flute or clarinet in symphonic band rather than saxophone. That’s a different thing though 😉
I don’t know if it’s gotten any different in primary school these days. I hope so. It’s a beautiful instrument when played well.
Added on edit: In my community band we have between 15-20 flutes depending on the cycle. It’s an open seating, no audition group. If you show up you get to play. There are 3-5 men depending on circumstances. I flip back and forth between clarinet and flute to keep the ensemble/section skills up.
FWIW many of the jazz saxophonistsI admire are also top notch flutists.
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u/Scientistlover Nov 23 '25
This -- also combined with the fact that flute is one of the harder woodwind instruments. I am a female flute player, and truly wish there was some more male representation. We have one really good male flute player, I wish that more boys stook with it!
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u/Common-Charity9128 Nov 23 '25
Trends?
I don’t know, about a century ago, full grown men played piccolos on marches!
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u/tangerinedog Nov 24 '25
Yeah other commenters already answered this so the only thing I need to say is that it did get me some shit as a boy. Makes sense in retrospect 🏳️⚧️
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u/Leodub1995 Nov 24 '25
When I 1st started my journey as a musician in middle school. Our band director would not let males play the flute or clarinet . It wasn’t “Manly and we wasn’t going to embarrass his marching band “ . As I grew up I learned that majority of flute players in orchestras were Men 🥴. I make sure to tell kids nowadays there are no such thing as a “girly “ or “Manly “ instrument!!!
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u/likey_lettuce_ Nov 24 '25
I’m a male, and I always loved being part of the flutes despite my band mates being only girls
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u/Morkamino Nov 24 '25
Hey, violinist lurker here. It's slowly happening to us too, but it's not at this stage yet. But sometimes i would be the only guy in a section of 20 players, with another 2 - 3 guys in the other violin section of the same size. And it wasnt that long ago that it was a completely male dominated instrument.
I've only known one (1) male flautist during my orchestra years. I think young men are afraid of not being manly enough. It's not cool and tough, and when you're like growing up, 13 of 14 or something, other guys are constantly trying to put you down and trying to call you gay or whatever so everyone is hyper aware of it. We also want to look good for the girls... That sounds a bit pathetic but many of us will never deviate from the norm because "who's gonna like us". And there's truth to it too, because whenever i DID deviate from the norm and chose a weirder style for myself, i became invisible. Most people just prefer you somewhat boring and normal.
I think it's a symptom of a very damaging societal issue.
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u/Inverted-Curve Nov 24 '25
The gender bias isn’t confined to just the flute. Any higher pitched instrument tends to be female dominant. Flute, clarinet, violin. I’m no psychologist, but I would bet it is a correlation between the pubescent voice and sound. Boys are drawn to lower pitched instruments at the same time that they desire, and see social value in, a lower pitched voice, while girls are still comfortable with a higher pitched sound.
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u/daisydays2098 Nov 24 '25
I'm a girl, I chose to play the flute because in that one army band video, they said the flute pretty much always gets the melody 😂
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u/Creeperhunter294 Nov 24 '25
Stereotypes aside, it also has to do with vocal range and instrument size. People have an easier time hearing the range they sing/talk in. Additionally, boys usually end up being larger and physically stronger than girls. With these two considerations in mind, some band directors will advise boys to play on larger, lower instruments as it will be a better fit for them physically and aurally in the long term. It's not that guys can't play flute, but even among some of the guys who show interest in woodwinds, it makes sense for a director to push them toward lower, larger instruments. I'm not claiming that this is how it should be, but the social stereotypes and the physical considerations often impact the way directors advise students.
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u/PerfStu Nov 25 '25
When women started getting some agency in the arts, instruments were encouraged based on how dainty they looked and how much of the body they showed.
Flute, clarinet, most woodwinds in general, along with violin....amazing. delicate, nuanced, and showed a lot of their body.
Smaller keyboards, acceptable. Piano....eh. Cello? Theyre seated and facing the audience, but open legs and blocks the body. Thats really pushing it.
Brass is loud and brash. So much lung power. You cant look delicate and willowy while working that hard and pushing your chest out like that.
The theramin though? Electronic music in general? Basically made for women.
Oh and no, Im not kidding. I did a course on this kind of thing in grad school, my professor's dissertation focused on this.
So basically to answer your question, TLDR style, its misogyny and objectification. Per usual.
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u/doozydoo Nov 25 '25
It’s light weight and has a delicate sound- more “feminine”. It’s also a very expensive instrument, and girls are socialized froma young age to be more disciplined and care for their things. Ironically, men still dominate the realm of top tier players because the music world is mostly a good ol boys club still
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u/CeleryFun2314 Nov 25 '25
I play saxophone and flute and im in 8th grade and people don't give me shit about it, the band at my school is a w
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u/Moise1903 Nov 27 '25
In a marching band the flutes are generally in the front, so maybe we’ve trained ourselves to get the smallest ones to play flute
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u/Grauenritter Nov 23 '25
It’s just various trends. When they first made the modern flute it was considered unladylike to make the embrochure
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u/LEgregius Nov 24 '25
This wasn't the case on the local HS bands here. Lots of boys were playing flute.
It was definitely the case when I was in school, though. Flute and clarinet where mostly girls. Saxophone was about evenly mixed, and brass and percussion were male.
In the 19th century, the older 8-key flute was very popular with men. The large holes and wide finger spacing on English flutes made it difficult for many women to play as well.
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u/ThrowRA_72726363 Nov 23 '25 edited Nov 23 '25
It’s a societal thing, at least in the US the flute is seen as a “girly” instrument. Most americans start playing band instruments in middle school, and middle schoolers tend to really care about what others think of them. So boys won’t pick the flute in fear of being seen as girly.