Why Are So Many Robot Voices Female?
Sophie Kleeman | October 8, 2015
[Blogger's note: No doubt many of you know that in the early days of radio, often available as shortwave, female voices were used because it was felt that they were easier to understand when the audio quality was low, as was often the case in the early days. A female voice seemed to be better at getting through the static.]
[...]A brief history of female robot voices: In 1878, Emma Nutt became the first female phone operator in the world. Companies used to rely on boys for the task, but they were "rude and abusive to each other as well as to the customers," and women replaced them, according to a PBS documentary on the history of the telephone. Women were respectful and polite, making them ideal go-betweens.
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| Eve, the female robot assistant in Sparkling Apps' Voice Answer software. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Rejects-iRobot-Looking-Siri-Clone-259168.shtml |
<more at http://mic.com/articles/126326/why-siri-cortana-and-so-many-robot-voices-are-female; related links: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Rejects-iRobot-Looking-Siri-Clone-259168.shtml (Apple Rejects iRobot-Looking Siri Clone (+Video). March 16, 2012) and http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/02/robot_gender_is_it_bad_for_human_women.html (Bot Looks Like a Lady. Should robots have gender? February 4, 2015)>
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