Self Help

Women often accuse men of missing many nonverbal cues in the communication process, and research shows this to be true. However, males do focus on the vocal aspects of what is being said - the paralinguistics. And one conclusion that can be drawn from research on vocal quality is that women tend to be more specifically judged on voice traits than are men.

Perhaps this is an extension of the fact that women are judged more (and judge others more) on their physical attractiveness. A woman’s voice is yet another dimension of her attractiveness.

Men react negatively to female vocal characteristics that undermine authority, such as a high pitch, slow pace, or increased inflection. As noted in several surveys about female communications weaknesses, men were often critical of female voices, saying, “Women need to speak with more strength of voice and presence,” or “Their pitch needs to be lower and their speed is too slow.”

Indeed, voice is one of the biggest contributors to women losing credibility in the workplace. Some women use their voices like little girls, with attention grabbers at the beginning of their statements – gasp. “You’ll never guess what happened to me!”