#vocalpitch

[philipgladstone1]

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[drcknowledgeandpower]

Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership: by Alice Eagly, Linda L. Carli

For our class readings last week, we spent a lot of time immersing ourselves in articles about women’s leadership and the challenges that they face every day. This article stuck out the most to me because of a particular topic that was written about. My interviewee for my final paper also spoke of this, and I am currently writing my research paper on this topic as well. 

The topic is the vocal pitches/tones of voices in men and women, and how this correlates with leadership. In Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership, the authors quote Kim Campbell, who served as the prime minister of Canada for a period of time in 1993. Her quote is as follows: 

“I don’t have a traditionally female way of speaking….I’m quite assertive. If I didn’t speak the way I do, I wouldn’t have been seen as a leader. But my way of speaking may have grated on people who were not used to hearing it from a woman. It was the right way for a leader to speak, but it wasn’t the right way for a woman to speak. It goes against type.” 

I’ve been doing research, and it is so interesting to see that there have been many studies done on this phenomenon. In all of the studies, female candidates with a lower voice are the preferred choice. 

But of course, don’t speak too assertively... because then we’re just being bitchy, right? 

This topic of vocal pitch is just one of the many reasons for resistance to women in leadership. But really, vocal pitch? How can such an irrelevant biological characteristic factor into how “right” someone is for a leadership role?