We built voice modulation to mask gender in technical interviews
<i>&gt;&quot;Contrary to what we expected (and probably contrary to what you expected as well!), masking gender had no effect on interview performance.&quot;</i><p>I&#x27;ve seen quite a few studies pointing out this &quot;confidence gap&quot; now. They have shown women to be less confident, and it shows in their actions and speaking patterns. I still hear these speaking patterns even in the voice modulated versions-- statements sounding like questions with the upward inflection at the end. Vocal fry. Lots of &quot;uhm, well, erm&quot; flustered speak. So it doesn&#x27;t surprise me that even with a modulated voice these women still sound unsure of themselves and thus they still didn&#x27;t interview as well.<p>As women there are some actions we can take. It&#x27;s good to be aware of these speaking patterns and try to break them--but ultimately there are so many of these patterns that show that the only real solution is to try to internalize confidence. It&#x27;s easier said than done. And we can&#x27;t ignore the fact that there are reasons outside of ourselves for why women are not as confident as men. It&#x27;s not just an internal issue. While we can take some actions for ourselves, we should still be looking at the external reasons that caused the issue in the first place. Why are large amounts of women less confident compared to men? Let&#x27;s tackle those issues, too.<p>When women try to be confident, it can get frowned upon. A man being assertive is a leader, a woman is bossy. Women are quicker to hit walls for just how confident they&#x27;re allowed to be before they get the &quot;bossy&#x2F;bitchy&quot; label thrown at them.  The below article makes good counterpoints for the confidence-gap, and provides sources to some studies regarding women and confidence. And I&#x27;ve seen women call each other bitchy&#x2F;bossy, too. This is something that society as a whole needs to work on.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;commentisfree&#x2F;2014&#x2F;apr&#x2F;23&#x2F;female-confidence-gap-katty-kay-claire-shipman" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;commentisfree&#x2F;2014&#x2F;apr&#x2F;23&#x2F;female...</a>