High School Debate: Open to Ideas, Not to Women

High school Speech and Debate programs provide students a fantastic opportunity to practice public speaking, critical thinking, and persuasiveness; producing leaders like Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang, among others.  But the Speech and Debate community is far from perfect: haunted by hostility towards women and gender-bias.

Gender bias is prominent throughout the debate world. New Roads’ Debate coach Akunna Uka said she’s heard stories from her female debate students where they have gotten feedback from judges about their outfits and makeup, rather than their skills or arguments. 

Anya Nelson, a participant in the Original Advocacy in Speech and Parliamentary Debate events, echoed those sentiments: “In middle school, I was scolded for being too aggressive when the male debater I was going against was being just as aggressive, if not more. Then, in high school, I was told to be more logical and less emotional. I witnessed gender bias last year as well when my debate partner, Isabella Carbonari, was told she was too emotional and aggressive in her speech. The judge deducted speaker points for that reason and due to that deduction, we didn’t make it to the elimination rounds.” 

During a tournament, Anya Nelson walks through the halls of Culver City High School to locate the room where her next round will be taking place. Los Angeles, California, February 29, 2020. (Nathalie Stefanov / News Road)

Ms. Carbonari, who also participates in both Original Advocacy and Parliamentary Debate events, said she has faced gender inequality: “From condescending male speakers who speak over me and then don’t get marked down, to judges telling me I’m too aggressive, that I need to calm down, that I was stressing others out…We can’t be too loud for fear of being marked down as aggressive, we can’t be too quiet because otherwise, we will come off as weak. We must be respectful and therefore cannot get rattled when a speaker talks over you for 5 minutes straight. We must smile to ensure that we don’t look too depressing or serious…While debate is a great love and passion of mine, it is not perfect.”

These “aggressive” comments are not single experiences of Ms. Nelson and Ms. Carbonari. For years, women have been seen as aggressive, bossy, or emotional, while men are seen as decisive, confident, or passionate, a major factor behind the large disparities between men and women in leadership positions within the workforce. (1, 2)

“Male debaters are praised for being educated, powerful speakers, but when I try to match that, it works against me,” said Ms. Nelson. “The main thing is, I have to be very logical to avoid being judged for showing an ounce of emotion. This is especially difficult for me because I’m naturally a passionate speaker and that often gets me in trouble during rounds.” Mrs. Carbonari said, “We have to make sure our voices aren’t too high because that sound is unappealing. I have actually consciously had to make an effort to make my voice appear lower during rounds as a result.”

Studies published in The Royal Society as well as the PLOS Scientific Journal found that people are inclined to perceive lower-pitched voices as befitting of a leader, viewing them as more competent and trustworthy. It’s possible that this same bias is seen in debate tournaments. When the objective of each round is to convince a judge of a point, judges are more likely to trust lower-pitched voices, which are generally men’s voices. “I [have been] told not to use any hypothetical questions because my voice will naturally get higher and that is frowned upon,” said Ms. Nelson.

This gender bias appears to be more common in Debate events than in Speech. “Speech is my escape from the unfair world of debate. It is a place, mainly filled with passionate women, where I can talk about anything I want to while others have to listen. It provides a safe space and a voice to those who did not have such things,” said Ms. Carbonari. She said the only issue she faces in Speech is making sure her voice doesn’t go too high, as she’s aware that higher voices aren’t received too well in any event.

Ms. Nelson agreed with Ms. Carbonari’s description of Speech: “In my opinion, Debate culture is more aggressive than Speech culture,” said Ms. Nelson, later explaining that she hadn’t experienced any gender bias in her Speech event, Original Advocacy. “[It] is heavily female-dominated in my league so [gender bias] hasn’t been a problem… I don’t think my success is influenced by my gender. I think it is influenced by my ability to express my opinion about a topic in a way that I see fit without having to worry about how I’m coming across.”

In between rounds at an overnight, weekend tournament, Anya Nelson waits to hear results to see if she made it to Quarterfinals. Santa Clara, California, February 8, 2020. (Nathalie Stefanov / News Road)

The Speech and Debate community has a similarly poor track record regarding transgender and non-binary students. Until recently, students were required to specify their gender when signing up for tournaments. These sign-up methods available often lacked an option for non-binary/gender-nonconforming students. Despite recent policy changes by the Debate League, issues of bias persist throughout the community. 

“We were at a tournament and a student was purposefully misgendering a student and called them — purposefully — by the wrong pronouns in round, multiple times,” recalled Ms. Uka. “The student ended up going to the tournament director and reporting it and was not treated well in terms of the issue being grappled with as a serious issue as it was.” 

Tabroom.com, a website used across the Speech and Debate community to navigate tournaments and individual debate rounds, sent a tournament-wide email once the situation began to gain traction. The designers did offer a solution to the problem, including a new feature that allows students to specify their pronouns and have them distributed pre-round to prevent future misgendering. 

Gender bias is not exclusive to Speech and Debate, nor has it ever been; sexism is deeply rooted in our culture and therefore requires overwhelming community effort to resolve. “I don’t think it’s possible to have any biases erased entirely, unfortunately,” said Ms. Uka.

However, until these large cultural shifts happen, Ms. Uka believes it is important for the Speech and Debate community to work towards making Speech and Debate a more gender-friendly experience. “I think there can be more policies put in place so it is harder for people to act on their biases,” suggested Ms. Uka, hoping that the Speech and Debate community can take actions that can aid in “fueling conversations and creating discourse… Every school [should make] it a priority to have these conversations with their student body. My hope is that if we can facilitate conversation and bring people’s experiences to everyone’s attention, that can go a long way in beginning to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable and welcome.”

The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) has a list of 2020-2021 equity commitments, including a promise to “increase awareness about the importance of having a harassment and discrimination policy at speech and debate tournaments.” The details of how this promise will be fulfilled, or if it will be fulfilled at all, are unclear. 

“That’s the end goal, isn’t it?” said Ms. Uka. “The goal is that regardless of who you are, what you look like, how you identify, that you feel as though you can belong.”