It is very interesting to look back 50 years to the Piping Times Editorial of January 1976. As the New Year dawned, the piping world woke up to a new reality: the Sex Discrimination Act had come into force on December 29, 1975, and the doors of the top piping competitions had to open wider.
Women, who had previously not been made welcome as competitors, could now enter on exactly the same terms as men. The Piping Times editor greeted this legal earthquake with the memorable line that “the sacred platforms are invaded by a monstrous regiment of women” — a phrase lifted from John Knox in 1558, and proof that some attitudes in 1976 were still have been influenced by sixteenth century thinking.
The Act was part of a wider wave of change in Britain when society was trying to become better humans. Fifty years on, women are welcome at every level of competition in the world of Highland Piping, yet the casual misogyny of that 1976 editorial still echoes in corners of the piping world and far beyond it. It reminds us how recently the changes were made, and how much further we still have to go.
Thankfully we have the National Piping Centre researching the subject in their Women in Piping and Drumming study and championing women in piping and drumming through their cutting edge Maket Collective, and thought-leaders such as Dr. Sandy Geyer exploring the subject.
Piping Times Editorial
Every new year is of course a time for looking forward, with hope in the heart and resolution in the spirit, to brighter and better things. By the time the spirit has faded within us however we tend to have accepted the dull and inescapable fact that this year will be no better than last, and we console ourselves with the fact that last year was not too bad anyway.
1976 however is going to be—for piping at least—a great deal different from any of its predecessors. This is the year of the emancipation of women, a thought which will make many strong men feel that recovery from the annual Ne’erday festivities is taking a great deal longer than usual.
On December 29th last year the Sex Discrimination Act officially came into force. As a result, it is now illegal to treat women less favourably than men, in almost all possible forms of human activity. (Most men welcome the Act, because it also means that it is now illegal to treat men less favourably than women).
The places which will be affected most in piping are of course Oban and Inverness, where traditionally women have been debarred from competing in the piping competitions. The pros and cons of this are interesting but at the moment not important: it is sufficient to contemplate the changes which will have to take place this year when the sacred platforms are invaded by a monstrous regiment of women.
Exceptions to the Act are permitted, but piping is not one of them. The act allows discrimination “in any sport, game, or other activity of a competitive nature where physical strength, stamina, or physique puts a woman at a disadvantage with an average man”.
A cursory glance at the results of the amateur competitions shows that the girls do not seem to be at any disadvantage compared with the boys. The main reason that we do not find them equally dominant in the professional competitions in which girls are allowed to play, is a tribute to the work which has been done over the years by the Highland Society of London and the Piobaireachd Society. Their competitions are the ones which make or break pipers. Girls in the past who were good players never reached the top because they never had the incentive of playing at Oban and Inverness.
With the large numbers of young people learning nowadays, and the increasing number of juvenile and amateur competitions, combined with the wind of change so far as sex discrimination is concerned, the numbers likely to be entering for the premier contests will be reaching the three figure mark soon. This year it will be impossible to run the gold medal competitions unless some restriction is made on entry. And restriction cannot refer to previous performance in medal events, because this would discriminate against women. The only alternative is the highly desirable, and highly desired, one of grading pipers. We have to start doing this very soon or chaos will be upon us.