blindinglights
Member
I don't know if you've noticed, but in everyday life, almost every electronic voice assistant USES a female voice. Whether it's Alexa, Cortana, or Siri, the default voice is female. The default voice for map navigation is also female. This is no coincidence, however, that companies tend to favour women when it comes to voice assistants.
In an opinion piece by PCMag, author Chandra Steele studies the role of gender stereotypes. An amazon spokesman told Steele that the strongest reaction from Alexa users has been female voices. For Microsoft's cortana, the company says it has found that a woman's voice best embodies the qualities of a digital voice assistant -- help, support and trust. One theory is that men and women in general like women's voices, and that men's voices are more divisive.
But the real reason may not be the result of contemporary prejudices or perceptions about women in executive positions. On the contrary, it may be due to outdated concepts. When designing the Google Voice Assistant, Google noticed that it wanted to offer both male and female options, and realized how technically difficult this was. Why is that? The text-to-speech system mainly trains female voices.
There are other possibilities. Some researchers believe that women's vowel sounds are clearer, or that the pitch of their voices is easier to hear. While these are untenable arguments, they may be behind the decision to use women in early development efforts.
There are, of course, exceptions. Many devices, including Siri, can switch between male and female voices. But overcoming gender bias may take more time.
In an opinion piece by PCMag, author Chandra Steele studies the role of gender stereotypes. An amazon spokesman told Steele that the strongest reaction from Alexa users has been female voices. For Microsoft's cortana, the company says it has found that a woman's voice best embodies the qualities of a digital voice assistant -- help, support and trust. One theory is that men and women in general like women's voices, and that men's voices are more divisive.
But the real reason may not be the result of contemporary prejudices or perceptions about women in executive positions. On the contrary, it may be due to outdated concepts. When designing the Google Voice Assistant, Google noticed that it wanted to offer both male and female options, and realized how technically difficult this was. Why is that? The text-to-speech system mainly trains female voices.
There are other possibilities. Some researchers believe that women's vowel sounds are clearer, or that the pitch of their voices is easier to hear. While these are untenable arguments, they may be behind the decision to use women in early development efforts.
There are, of course, exceptions. Many devices, including Siri, can switch between male and female voices. But overcoming gender bias may take more time.
