WHEN WOMEN SPEAK – Do Listeners Reach For The Switch?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 189, 5 February 1943, Page 4

WHEN WOMEN SPEAK – Do Listeners Reach For The Switch?

"JN things that are tender and unpleasing," said Bacon, "it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance.’ But when N. C. Tritton, Pacific Intelligence Officer to the BBC, was recently asked about the use of women announcers in the BBC’s foreign news services, he gave another point of view. "There are large and small communities, within and without the British Commonwealth," he said, "where there are strong objections of custom or religion to women taking part in public life. One only has to think of certain Asian communities. News or commentaries given in a female voice would be objectionable to those communities, but a male voice is acceptable everywhere." Nevertheless, there are increasing numbers of women employed on the announcing staffs of the BBC, Mr. Tritton told "The Listener." "We are very pleased with the women announcers; I don’t know what they sound like to you here, but to us in London they sound very fine. The chief criticism of their work is that women are more often tempted to elocute and speak affectedly than men are. Marjorie Anderson and ‘Georgie’ Henschel are well known to listeners in the Pacific.service, and if you can judge by the fan mail they get, they areyvery successful. They don’t only get letters-they get all sorts of eatables as well, to the envy of the men. As a matter of fact I’ve enjoyed fan-mail butter myself." With this information as a basis, we set out to get some comments about those groups which have, or have had, or tend to have objections "of custom or religion," to women’s voices on the air, We present the results below.

IN INDIA EEKING information on India’s attitude, we spoke to a woman who spent 15 years in India. She was astonished at any suggestion that a woman’s voice would, in these modern times, be objectionable to the people of India, whether Mohammedan or Hindu. "Certainly both the Mohammedans and the Hindus keep their women in seclusion," she said, "but there are many women active in public life in India, and as far as I can say, it wouldn’t make the slightest difference whether the radio spoke with the voice of a man or of a woman. Certainly not among educated Indians, anyway, though the people who are still closely bound .by tradition would have a prejudice against women announcers. Still, it wouldn’t be any more than the prejudice you get here in New Zealand." IN CHINA HE Chinese Consul-General in Wellington did not feel prepared to give us a statement on the question, lacking recent factual information, but William Wah, of the Chinese Association in Wellington, said that women announcers were frequently heard on the smaller local stations in China, and "they make a very good job of it too." Mr. Wah mentioned that before the Japanese occupation, the news from Hong Kong was competently read by a woman. IN AMERICA ‘THE National Broadcasting Company of America has a representative here, Mervin K. Slosberg, and we asked him about women in radio in the United States. "There are very few engaged in routine announcing," he said. "Perhaps it’s because they don’t register over the mike so well, but anyway, they are not much used for regular announcing, although there are any numbér of women on the air as personalities-and highly-paid personalities at that." JEWISH ATTITUDE ABBI F. KATZ, of Wellington, told us that women announcers are used in Palestine, and are "very acceptable" to the Jews there. The old distinction, an Oriental idea rather than a peculiarly Jewish one, was now dropped almost entirely, and only the ultra-orthodox communities continued to exclude women from synagogue choirs. Most synagogue choirs nowadays are mixed, he said,

"The real reason for the distinction, which was made when the Jewish people were distinctly in touch with Oriental influence, is rooted in modesty. The Jews believed that a woman should not be used in a provocative manner — that when a woman sang for instance, she might arouse feelings other than devotional." WHAT ST. PAUL SAID BEFORE approaching representatives of Christian religions, we refreshed our memory of what St. Paul said on the subject of women in church (Cor, 14, 34-35): "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. "And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." PRESBYTERIAN A MINISTER of a Presbyterian church said that by tradition his Church was rather against women taking an active part in the conduct of religious services, and that there are no female elders, but that in very special circumstances, women do enter the pulpit. "I find it very seldom that a woman speaker is as impressive as a man, and I do feel that women are more inclined to listen to men than men are inclined to listen to women," he said. "Also, women are the severest critics of women speakers. On the other hand, I heard Maud Royden take a three-hour service in London, and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever heard." ROMAN CATHOLIC HE Catholic Church, according to a priest we approached, does not have to concern itself with the problem, because, although women have their part within the organisation of the Church, they take no part in the religious services. Mass is always conducted by an ordained priest, but in religious houseg of/ women, devotional exercises, though not the Mass itself, are conducted by the women. , : ANGLICAN CHURCH of England representative, Archdeacon A. B. Bullock, produced another quotation from St. Paul to counter the one on women speaking in church, . (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) "You must remember that it was St. Paul who said ‘In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male or female’-I forget the exact sequence. And mind you, that was a very bold statement for a man at that time, speaking to an Oriental Society. "No, I know of no time in the history of the Anglican Church when there has been any strong objection to women speaking in church, There are no fully ordained women, of course, but women can be licensed to preach. Maud Royden was the great protagonist of their cause." SALVATION ARMY HE Salvation Army, according to Colonel W. Alex. Ebbs, the general secretary for New Zealand, has always championed the cause of female expression. "Ever since Catherine Booth rose up, we have had a strong advocacy for women’s right of utterance anywhere and everywhere, and in fact, we owe it to the eloquence of women that we are the second largest missionary organisation in the world." COMMERCIAL BROADCASTING "AS far as Commercial Broadcasting is concerned, we have tried for some time to use women announcers, and to train them to take the place of men," said an official of the N.C.B.S. "We have two women announcers, one at 2ZB and one at 3ZB. But we get all sorts of criticisms from’ the public as soon as we put a woman on to announcing. Most of the objections come from women who do not like women announcers, except for special women’s sessions. People like a good homely | voice, someone who can talk quite naturally, and there is a danger that the women who have the training have what to the average housewife sounds like too cultured a voice-a pedantic manner of trying to impress, which is irritating. Of course none of this applies to talks on domestic subjects, cooking, children’s care and so on, which are without doubt best done by women." THE WOMEN’S ANGLE a WOULD agree that, generally speaking, women’s voices do not come over the air as well as men’s, but I do think that it would be a good thing if they were generally used for announcing and for news commentaries," said the president of a women’s organisation. ° "As things are, we are still apt to think of all politics and international affairs as being men’s business. It is time people were educated to think that world affairs were the business of everyone, not only of men, and this is just one way by which it might be done. Not all women’s voices are unsuitable." MAN IN THE STREET A MAN, a constant listener to talks, said: "Women’s voices, in my opinion, are generally pitched too high, and women throw them out too much. Nearly all women let their maternal instinct creep into their voices. They want to protect and instruct and guide, and this is just irritating. They tend also to be arch and make feeble jokes and laugh them off. In a conference "of listeners held some years ago by the BBC, 75 per cent of the conference said that they found women’s voices irritating to listen to over the air. Yes, I would be among that 75 per cent."