The Role Gender Plays in Competitive Speech and Debate

When I entered high school, I was excited to join as many clubs as I could. I found myself, a relatively shy person, wanting to be a part of my school’s speech and debate team. I was drawn to public forum debate. In this event, a team of two students debate a resolution with another team of two students.

I remember my first ever competition. I entered my first round with stars in my eyes and confidence in my case. It was not the easiest task but I struggled my way through it. By my fourth round, I had been taking mental notes on the way I was treated by male versus female competitors. In my experience, I found that my male competitors had a tendency to be more aggressive throughout the round. It was a battle trying to get in a word during crossfire; there was a clear fight to try and dominate the questioning. For those who don’t do public forum debate, crossfires are supposed to be much more civilized. I didn’t find this negative experience with my female competitors. I also noticed a general disrespect during my and my partner’s speeches. The male debaters would talk, show faces of confusion, or even roll their eyes while we were speaking. Furthermore, they tended to enter and exit the debate with more confidence after finding out my gender. It was almost as if it was unimaginable that a female voice could be stronger and have more weight than a male voice. 

A recent experience I had, with a clear gender bias, struck me wrong. My partner and I had competed against two boys. Later, we found out we won and, to put it as nicely as possible, we crushed them. They faced our friends later in the competition. My friend asked one of them what they thought about the round. Their answer is what disturbed me. Speaker one made comments such as “They were annoying” and “They were too loud.” Speaker two made comments such as “They weren’t even that good” and “They were too aggressive.” I can almost guarantee these comments would not have been made if we were male. Being called “loud” and “annoying” is a general male response to female voices. I have been called “too opinionated” more times than I can count. If we were male, I believe there would have been more respect towards our voices and argumentation. I have found that most women share these experiences within speech and debate. I could tell a plethora of stories worse than this one ranging from sexist comments to sexual harassment.

It’s not just the attitude of male competitors. It’s also about how gender is reflected in ballots. Empirically, women are about 4 percentage points less likely to win a preliminary debate round. Judges have an inherent bias against female debaters because of gender stereotypes. Girls are not supposed to be aggressive or loud, we are supposed to be quiet and submissive. Speech and debate go directly against this ideology which means that girls are discouraged from this activity. 

Speech and debate have given me so many valuable skills. It was the first place where I felt I could come out of my shell. In this activity, I have been able to find my voice and I wish that every girl could have the same experience. The harsh reality is that most girls don’t have access to this activity or they have worse experiences than mine that make speech and debate an unsafe space. It is truly a disservice that women are kept out of this activity. We can rewire this system of oppression by bringing awareness to large circuits such as the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA). Calling out competitors, judges, coaches, and other oppressors is how we can make this community more accepting. We must stop this behavior from continuing through harsher punishments for discriminators and unacceptable behaviors. Most resolutions we debate fight for the oppressed and underserved all over the globe so allowing inequality within our community is sheer hypocrisy. 

So what can YOU do? Listen to stories of discrimination at the hands of the speech and debate community on @speechanddebatestories on Instagram. Share these stories and articles like this with your teammates, competitors, and especially your coaches. The only way for change to happen is to bring awareness.

Dahlia Solomon is a sophomore at Syosset High School. She wholeheartedly believes that young people deserve a voice in politics, and that is why she is involved in local politics and the NGP Blog. She loves being able to debate and communicate with new people to broaden her worldview. She hopes to one day pursue a career in law. In her free time, Dahlia can be found reading, writing, and drawing.