News/Research

Tom McEnaney in the NYT on Women's Voices & Politics

10 Feb, 2020

Tom McEnaney in the NYT on Women's Voices & Politics

BCNM professor Tom McEnany was quoted in NYT article, "What Do We Hear When Women Speak?." The article, by Jessica Bennett analyzed the relationship between female politicans and their voices.

From the article:

In a course called “Sounding American,” at the University of California at Berkeley, Tom McEnaney, a professor of comparative literature and Portuguese and Spanish, teaches that there is in fact a sound that people associate with authority in this country — and, while it is constantly evolving, it has its roots in many things, one of which is early broadcast technology. Dating back to the phonograph, he said, engineers had created a device that was designed for the male voice — newscasters, presidents, public figures — to the extent that if a woman spoke into it, her voice would sound distorted, thin or scrambled.

“The mic wouldn’t pick up certain ranges of voice,” Professor McEnaney said. “If a woman wanted to speak and get her voice recorded, she had to produce more volume and more energy to make the same marks. She could try to speak lower, or she could shout. But she’d have to change her voice.”

Read the article here.