I spent some time this week in London, working with a female professor, attending meetings full of presentations. The fact that the Prof I was with was female didn’t matter one jot – she was the best in the world at what these people needed to know about….
….except that it did matter.
Why? Because being a woman brings with it very specific presentation issues (see here too) – quite apart from the obvious old-fashioned, chauvinistic ones of men not wanting to listen (and sometimes preferring only to look instead). I’m thinking particularly of women’s voices.
Vocal chords in women typically work at around 225-250 movements per second – nearly twice that of men – so it’s particularly important not to stress them. That means it’s even more crucial for women to get their posture right to protect their voice-system. Unfortunately, women are also typically shorter than men and so tend to raise their heads to look at people.
Today’s tip…… don’t. Keep your head tipped comfortably forwards by a couple of degrees and look your audience in the face by raising your eye-line, not your head! It’s odd at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!
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