Gender Affirming Voice Care: A Literature Review

Abstract

High and low vocal pitch are commonly identified as indicators of masculinity and femininity. Normative ranges for pitch vary by source, with fundamental frequency of cisgender men and women generally in the range of 100-120 and 190-220 Hz, respectively. However, pitch is only one of many qualities known to affect gender identification and has been found to account for only 42% of variance in perception of speaker gender. 17 Additional factors found to affect perception of gender according to research without high risk of bias include resonance, which describes the filtering effect of the upper aerodigestive tract on voice, articulation patterns, and intonation. 17 Multiple gender communication cues must be addressed to effectively change gender perception. As an example, accurate gender identification in digitally modified voice samples was shown to fall to less than 34% when pitch and resonance were incongruent. 18