Women have more tones in their voices than men. As a result, women often have a more expressive voice whose pitch is more diverse. Unfortunately, therefore, they are also sometimes accused of being hysterical, screaming, and especially in patriarchal societies they were not taken too seriously.
But this feature can also be used effectively in a presentation without having to follow the example of Margaret Thatcher. After all, the reason she herself attended elocution lessons was that during her reign as prime minister, there were far fewer women in high positions, and in 99% of cases it was better to be a man in order to get somewhere.
The masculinity in the tone of her voice did help her in her career. In essence, she used only the same tones as her male counterparts. Today things are less dramatic: society is at least a little more balanced, and women can be as prominent in the world of business or politics as men.
Here are some tips on how you can work more with your voice to gain greater audience interest and respect:
- Simply by increasing slightly the tone of your voice, you can make some points of your presentation more interesting and lively
- Decreasing the pitch and slowing your speech will highlight serious topics and make them easier to understand
- Thanks to the balanced tone in your voice, your presentation will sound calm and professional
So the trick is that you mostly use your normal conversational voice but in order to emphasise certain moments or interesting points, you play with the level of your voice so as to maintain audience interest.
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