The Hundred Percent Collective is a pipe band comprised of women from the world's top-level pipe bands, created to challenge the status quo.
This initiative is inspired by the fact that currently women make up only 7% of pipers in grade 1. The number is low because the barriers are real. Bias, exclusion, discrimination, and the steady attrition of players who are more than capable but don’t want to deal with it. The discrimination women face has been evidenced and documented through research conducted by the National Piping Centre and the University of Glasgow, and in an article and informal survey from Pipes|drums. This article also outlined a vision for the future - and one of these visions was an all-female grade 1 level pipe band.
Our goal is high-level performance, community-building, challenging systemic barriers for women in pipe bands and, most importantly, to inspire future generations.
In 2023, the female pipers from the centre bands gathered for a photo during the march past at the Worlds. It was a cool moment of shared knowing. In 2024, we expanded and took a photo with all of the female pipers in grade 1. A question took shape: what would it be like if we played together, not just stood together?
The Hundred Percent Collective is that band. In summer 2025, all the female pipers from Grade 1 were invited to perform together for the first time as guests of Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia's ‘Pre-Worlds’ concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
We’re taking it the next step by forming a full pipe band with musicians drawn from more than ten Grade 1 and 2 bands across Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Canada, the USA and France.