The gender composition of your audience—mixed (male and female) or single gender (all female or all male)—affects how your listeners will respond to your speech. Some stories, illustrations, or examples might resonate better with one gender grouping than another.

Car sellers, for example, pay close attention to differences in buying patterns between genders. In recent years, marketers in the automotive industry observed that more women were buying cars and that sales pitches aimed at men did not work effectively when applied to female customers. Minh, a former student of ours and an automotive salesperson, told a story that shed light on this development. In Minh’s experience, effectively selling Volvo station wagons to men and women required two very different approaches.4 To appeal to men, Minh emphasized the cars’ turbocharged engines, high-performance tires, and special detailing. To capture women’s interest, he stressed features related to safety, reliability, and fuel economy. Although Minh aimed the same broad message at all shoppers—“You’ll want to buy this wonderful car”—he tailored the specifics of the message to each gender.

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Although consideration of gender is a valid component of audience analysis, you must never assume you know about an individual audience member’s views based on gender. The views of countless men and women cut against the grain of traditional ideas of gender stereotypes—oversimplified and often distorted views of what it means to be male or female. Likewise, ethical speakers never resort to sexist language, or language with a bias for or against a given gender.