Women of today have deeper voices compared to their female ancestors! It speaks of progress and authority!

 Women from times immemorial have been considered inferior to men and high-pitched voices were associated with their submissiveness. But a research from Australia has revealed that women of today have more low pitched voices compared to their mothers or grandmothers. This speaks of their authority and social rank. Spontaneously or deliberately women of today possess deeper voices. It is an indication of the changing power dynamics but may not be liked by all. Voices have changed but mentalities remain the same age-old ones!!!

The Australian study on voice pitch and women of today

Cecilia Pemberton at the University of South Australia performed voice study on university females aged 18-25 years. These were not smokers. She compared the voice pitch of these women in 1990s with that of women in 1945. The latter was from recorded talks and conversations. There was a significant audible difference in voice quality. The pitch dropped 23 Hz from 229 to 206. In the present group, some women were on oral contraceptive pills. Even after excluding these women, the pitch difference in the women groups 5 decades apart was significant. 

Women of today have deeper voices (Source: YouTube)

Also read Bollywood and its prejudice against women with deeper voice!

The speculated reason was that women of today have risen to more prominent roles in society and along with independence and authority, the voice change came in. 

Previous similar findings and observations

Former UK PM Margaret Thatcher had employed a voice coach to make her voice sound dominating. She managed to drop her voice pitch 60 Hz!!!

Joey Cheng of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also found that women and also men who lowered their voice pitch ended with a higher social ranking. 

This finding is common in nature wherein many primates and male frogs lower their voice pitch during fights. Joey asserts:

“It signals to others that their intention is to be ready to fight and protect their resources – to assert their status.” 

Hence push for gender-equality led to long term changes in voice of women. They became more deeper. Similar findings come from the USA, Canada, and Sweden. 

Powerful women of today (Source: BBC)

Regional differences in voice pitch of women are seen. Women from Netherlands have deeper voices than those from Japan or India where women submissiveness is commonplace asserted by religion, culture, and society including politics. 

More needs to be done....

Though deeper voices are common these days in dominating women, Joey states that these do not necessarily come as an advantage to them:

“While lower voices – and other assertive behaviour in general – effectively signal and assert power and authority in women, as it does in men, it might also have the unintended effect of undermining how well liked they are,”

Such women are considered sexually less attractive and also less appealing to men. But this is due to undue societal prejudice. Hence though progress has come in the audible range and voice of women, the same has not bern noticed in the mentality of people! There is still a long way to go for it!!!