Beyond the binary: Limitations and possibilities of gender-related speech technology research

TL;DR

This review highlights the limited and often inconsistent research on speech and gender, emphasizing the need for socially aware terminology and inclusive approaches to better serve marginalized groups.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of 107 papers, exposing terminology issues and advocating for socially informed, spectrum-aware gender research in speech technology.

Findings

Scarcity of research on speech and gender

Terminology often inconsistent and underspecified

Potential marginalization of groups due to current practices

Abstract

This paper presents a review of 107 research papers relating to speech and sex or gender in ISCA Interspeech publications between 2013 and 2023. We note the scarcity of work on this topic and find that terminology, particularly the word gender, is used in ways that are underspecified and often out of step with the prevailing view in social sciences that gender is socially constructed and is a spectrum as opposed to a binary category. We draw attention to the potential problems that this can cause for already marginalised groups, and suggest some questions for researchers to ask themselves when undertaking work on speech and gender.