The Relationship of Gender and Voice to Depression and Eating Disorders

Abstract

Research often fails to document a gender difference in measures of voice. This is inconsistent with Gilligan's conceptualization of voice as a gendered construct. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate currently available measures of voice, particularly in terms of whether they appear to be assessing the same characteristics in men as in women. Eighty-seven men and 146 women, all college students, completed both the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS; Jack & Dill, 1992) and the Saying What I Think Around Others scale (SWIT; Harter and Waters, 1991). In addition, measures of depression and eating problems as well as the Personal Attributes Questionnaire were completed. Results indicated inconsistent gender differences on voice measures with some showing no differences, others showing men as having lower voice, and others showing lower voice in women. Correlations between the two voice measures for men and for women were small to moderate. As suggested by Harter, Waters, Whitesell, and Kastelic (1998), femininity was often negatively related to voice, though masculinity was more consistently, and positively, related. The link between lack of voice and psychopathology that has been suggested by various researchers was documented more clearly for women than for men. The results, then, show different patterns of relationships involving voice measures for men than for women. This raises the possibility that the measures are tapping different constructs in men and women, rendering mean comparisons questionable.

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