Gender, Voice, and Job Stereotypes

Researchers found men and women are rated differently on various characteristics according to gender stereotypes (Castillo-Mayen and Montes-Bergesin in Anales de Psicologia 30(3):1044–1060, 2014. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.2.138981; Rice and Barth in Gender Issues 33:1–2, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-015-9143-4; Smith et al. in Sex Roles 80:159–171, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0923-7). These stereotypes impact individuals any time they enter into an interview for a position requiring them to be evaluated on a particular skill set. Another set of research has also found individuals are rated differently according to the pitch of their voice (Fasoli et al. in Arch Sex Behav 46:1261–1277, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-0962-0; Fasoli and Hegarty in Psychol Women Quart 44(2):234–255, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684319891168; Klofstad et al. in Proc Roy Soc 279:2698–2704, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0311; O’Connor and Barclay in Evol Hum Behav 38:506–512, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.03.001; Oleszkiewicz et al. in Psychon Bull Rev 24:856-862, 2017. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1146-y). This addresses the possibility that pitch of voice and gendered pronouns interact to impact the application of gender stereotypes. Two studies investigated the interaction between gendered pronouns and voice pitch on evaluations in a job interview setting. The first experiment included 68 participants recruited via email at a private Midwestern college. Gendered pronouns (he/she/the candidate) were provided for a job candidate with a gender-neutral voice pitch. There were no statistically significant differences between gendered pronoun conditions in evaluations of job candidates. The second experiment had 180 participants. Both the pitch (high, neutral, low) and gender pronouns (he, she, and the candidate) were manipulated. There were several significant main effects of perceived gender, and interactions were found between perceived gender and pitch of voice. Pitch and gendered pronouns together affected the way job candidates were evaluated. Specifically, the combination of pitch and gendered pronouns increased the application of gender stereotypes specifically related to emotionality.