Study Finds 82% Of Women Feel Pressure To Change This One Thing About Themselves At Work
It's just another example of the inequality between men and women in the workforce.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock We already know there are major disparities between women and men in the workforce. As if unequal pay and access to advancement weren’t enough, it turns out that women also feel the need to change one very key part of themselves in order to fit in better.
A new study found that 82% of women feel pressure to change their voice at work.
Preply, a language learning and tutoring platform, conducted a survey of 1,800 full-time working women in the U.S. The study uncovered some interesting information about what linguists refer to as “code-switching,” according to StudyFinds.org. Their staff, who reported on the study, noted that 82% of women surveyed felt like they needed to adjust their voices when working. There were several factors that played into this.
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First, the women noted that they tended to use more casual language in their personal lives. 56% reported using slang, 55% reported sarcasm, and 53% reported profanity, but only when they were in personal situations. At work, this completely changed, and these linguistic preferences were almost eliminated. In addition, 48% of women also reported using more humor in their day-to-day lives outside of work. 42% used “filler words” such as “like” and 39% felt that they could laugh with more freedom.
The most commonly given reasons for code-switching were rooted in professionalism. 76% of women actually wanted to appear more professional in general. Another 37% wanted to express competence, 35% wanted to project confidence, and 22% wanted to fit in. Other, more personal reasons given for code-switching included masking emotions at 20%, fearing judgment at 15%, and 13% simply feared being stereotyped over how they spoke.
A third of women thought that code-switching felt disingenuous, and another 25% considered it to be “emotionally draining.” Still, they continued to modify their speech because they were concerned about the potential consequences for their careers if they didn’t.
The workplace is rife with gender inequality.
It’s not surprising to learn that women feel the need to change their voices to fit in properly at work when so much gender inequality exists in the workplace. A Pew Research Center survey found that 42% of women in the workforce said they felt they had experienced discrimination due to their gender.
Some of the biggest reasons for feeling this way were income disparity, being treated as if they’re incompetent, and being slighted in small ways. Just fractions of men could say the same.
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Women feel forced to overcompensate in many aspects of life, but predominantly in professional spaces, simply to be taken seriously or considered for advancement. It’s no wonder they choose to code-switch in an effort to appear more powerful and authoritative.
Experts are unsure of how to respond to code-switching.
A natural answer to this phenomenon would be to simply stop the code-switch somehow. But that may not actually be the best option for women, as it would only cause them to feel less authentic.
Melissa Baerse Berk, an associate linguistics professor at the University of Chicago, said, “I’m not sure the answer is to have women communicate more assertively if that doesn’t feel natural to them. Instead, we can recognize that all styles of communication are okay as long as the message is being transmitted.”
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Women already have so little control over their professional lives. Telling them to simply stop code-switching would be detrimental, as some women have adapted to that style of speaking and feel comfortable with it. Trying to make them stop would be yet another attempt to gain control. Still, if code-switching is hurting women and the way they view themselves, something must be done.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
