Read time: 3 mins
Based on Assessing language-based discrimination in Australia: The effect of speaker accent in employability judgments by Ksenia Gnevsheva, published February 2025.
ANU researchers have looked into accent bias, asking 153 listeners to rank the employability of different voices. Women with non-Anglo accents were rated as the least employable.
Read time: 3 mins
Based on Assessing language-based discrimination in Australia: The effect of speaker accent in employability judgments by Ksenia Gnevsheva, published February 2025.
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When Australians assess a voice’s ‘employability,’ accent bias negatively affects ratings for women.
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Non-Anglo women’s voices were scored as the least employable. Anglo women were the most employable, even above Anglo men.
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Hiring should account for accent bias. An accent blind process would help.
To assess accent bias, ANU experts played 30 voices to 153 listeners. Listeners rated their employability on a five-point scale.
The researchers noted that past studies of accent bias focused on male speakers and didn’t account for intersections between biases.
In this study, speakers were from diverse backgrounds. Listeners were all native English speakers and tertiary-educated professionals.
Accents only affected ratings for female voices. Women with non-Anglo accents received below average scores from listeners of all ages.
The linguistic background of the male speakers didn’t affect their scores. This means there was double discrimination against only one group: women with non-Anglo accents.
The results suggest that professionals and decision-makers, especially in human resources, need better training to manage accent bias.
Allowing women to demonstrate skill without revealing their accent would also prevent discrimination.
The experts also noted that anti-discrimination measures work best in diverse workplaces with strong cultures of acceptance.
Top image: Léa Jones/Stocksy.
“Women with non-Anglo accents scored below average among listeners of all ages.”
