Where are All The Women?

There you are. It is the first World Championship Speech Contest that you have ever attended. You belong to the organization that sponsors this contest and you know that half of the membership is like you, or at least the same gender. You know that there are people in your gender high up in the organization. You know that there are people in your gender in speech contests, because you have seen them, because you have been in contests yourself.

You are excited and looking forward to this. The room is large with hundreds, maybe even a thousand people there. Half the audience is people from your gender. So you sit ready, for the contest, actually more like a show, to begin. The first person to speak, is a member of the opposite gender. The second person to speak is a member of your gender; in fact this person has the same first name as you. This is unusual, but nice, since you have a name, not too many people have.

You look at the program, and the name of the contestants catches your eye. It seems from the names that at the most only 2 people might be of your gender. You find that odd, and wonder if there might some subtle discrimination that no one talks about or is even aware of.

The contest starts and one member after another of the opposite gender than yours comes forward to participate. There are different races and nationalities, and even one disabled person competing, and that is all good. In fact the 1 member of your gender that is a contestant is a member of a minority race.

So in a contest with 10 people, 9 people are from the gender other than yours , and there is only 1 person in your gender. With a 9 to 1 ratio, the person that is from your gender, has a slim change in winning.

In fact the organization that you belong to and who is sponsoring this event has been around since 1932 and has held World Championship in Public Speaking contests since 1938. However your gender was not allowed to join until 1973. Since 1973 there have been only 3 members of your gender that have won, and the last one was in 1986.

For an organization that has a policy of non-discrimination (including based on ethnicity, nationality, and gender), this is a upsetting fact. I think this discrimination in the World Championship Contests is not overt, I think it is unconscious. After all there are members of my gender, who act as judges. This unconscious discrimination I think comes from a belief that still is hold by many in society that members of my gender are just inferior speakers.

This is ridiculous, considering all the research that shows that people of my gender are better communicators. We start speaking at a much earlier age and by age 3 we have twice the vocabulary of the opposite gender. We continue to excel in communications. If there is one area in which my gender has an advantage, it is in public speaking.

In doing some research, I have found that this organization does a very good job of inclusion for ethnicity and nationality, and even disability. Unfortunately, this inclusion only includes one gender and not the other.

A young person, from my opposite gender, and from other country than the U.S. was sitting next to me at the contest, and was confused with my disappointment at the lack of members of my gender. I asked this person if their gender was only represented by a 1 in 10 ratio if this person might be upset. The reply was a resounding, Yes.

So what is the solution? I think that awareness is the first option. I think this is an issue that we need to think about and talk about. By seeing one member of the same gender win year after year, is quite discouraging to the other gender.

The gender that always wins is, of course ,men, and the gender that has only won 3 times in the past 34 years is women, of which gender I proudly belong to.

So the organization is Toastmasters International which has more than 226,000 members and 11,300 clubs in 90 countries, including 73 clubs in Phoenix alone. And each year more than 10,000 members of Toastmasters International compete in this speech contest. The competition begins at the club level with winners advancing to area and regional contest, and it culminates each August during the International Convention where 10 finalist contend for the top honor.

So are you telling me that out of 10,000 members, many of them who I know must be women, only 1 woman is able to make up the 10 finalists? As I congratulated the one woman contestant and mentioned her being the only woman contestant, she mentioned that "we, as women, just need to work harder."

I disagree. No matter how hard we work on speaking, we will never win on a regular basis, or even have more than 1 contestant out of 9, if people aren't aware that they are unconsciously discriminating again women. What would people say if one man of color hadn't won, or no man of disability had won. There would be outrage. And there are many less men of color and disability as members of Toastmasters than there are women, and there are more men of color and disabilities that have won than women.

So I must ask where are all the women? So I must ask when is Toastmaster's International going to live up to it's policy of non-discrimination against gender?

Come on. I know we can do better for the other gender.

Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
http://www.janaruth.biz/
http://www.laughandlivehappier.com/
http://www.onewomanslaughter.blogspot/