Everyone has a telephone voice: high-pitched, smart and formal. But what if this extended beyond the phone and permeated your everyday life to the point where you feel that you have to alter who and what you are in order to ‘fit in’? This is the reality for many people with northern or regional accents, who feel that they have to tweak or mould themselves to fit in, to be taken seriously, or to get the job… For many, it becomes a performative daily dance, treading the fine line between conforming and stripping back parts of your identity.
I experienced this first hand when I arrived on the campus of Durham University as an excited, fresh-faced fresher in October 2018. Although I was a northerner, at a northern university, most students had a typically southern, Received Pronunciation accent and a private school education. As a result, I was made to feel isolated and like an outsider in what was essentially my own backyard.
“I often feel conflicted: the more I am made to feel mocked or judged for my accent, the more I double down and the more attached to my northern, working-class identity I become. Yet, I am also guilty of attempting to cover it in certain social or professional situations.”
I finally found my tribe in my final year, but I had spent two years feeling like I never really fit. As a sixth-form student, I had dreamed of going to Durham University, studying history and immersing myself in the grandiosity and tradition of the place. But when I was there, I often felt marginalised and judged based on the fact that I have a Yorkshire twang and don’t own a pony.
I often feel conflicted: the more I am made to feel mocked or judged for my accent, the more I double down and the more attached to my northern, working-class identity I become. Yet, I am also guilty of attempting to cover it in certain social or professional situations.
A national accent problem
A recent Guardian article revealed that 25 per cent of adults have had their accents mocked or criticised at work and a further 46 per cent said their accents had been commented on or mocked in social situations. For university students, this figure was 47 per cent.
“a hierarchy of ‘accent prestige’ remains in British society”
The study also showed that public perceptions of accents have changed very little in over 50 years. Received Pronunciation, also known as “the Queen’s English”, was rated the most prestigious accent in 2019, as it was in 1969. African-Caribbean and Indian accents, alongside those from Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, were ranked as the least prestigious.
Clearly, the issue of “accent bias” is far from being eradicated within British society. In fact, many people with working-class or regional accents fear that their careers might suffer because of the way they speak. Professor Devyani Sharma, who authored the report, said that a hierarchy of “accent prestige” remains in British society, and needs to be tackled by employers.
Accents at work
I spoke with Fiona Scott, a qualified journalist, TV producer and director who runs her own media consultancy firm, Scott Media. Fiona, now 58, told me about her first experience of the world of television in the mid-1990s. As a young journalist, Fiona’s dream was to be an onscreen reporter, covering news across her home counties, Somerset and Wiltshire.
However, she was told that her accent was too West Country and that she did not pronounce certain words properly – ironic, given that the channel in question served the West Country. Fiona told me: “TV should seek to embrace all regional accents and represent the people it is there to serve.”
Credit: Fiona Scott, Scott Media.
Furthermore, in her much-anticipated autobiography, How (Not) To Be Strong, Alex Scott revealed that she received torrents of online abuse for the way she spoke when presenting on TV as part of the BBC’s 2021 Olympic broadcasting team.
The former Arsenal and England captain grew up in East London and has the accent to match. This is a woman who has been a Premier League, FA Cup, and Women’s Super League winner, a UEFA European Women’s Champion silver medallist, and part of the London Olympics 2012 quarter-final squad. It also has to be said that Scott did not step straight into her presenting career off the coattails of her footballing career. Instead, she insisted on undertaking a master’s degree in Journalism, to prove that she deserved her place on the other side of the microphone, despite naturally being one of the most qualified people in the country to undertake the role due to her previous career as a world-renowned footballer.
Despite this, after presenting alongside Clare Balding as part of the 2021 Olympic broadcast team, Scott wrote about how she received a now-deleted tweet from ‘Lord Digby Jones’ who wrote: “Alex Scott spoils a good presentational job on the BBC Olympics Team with her very noticeable inability to pronounce her “g”s at the end of a word. Competitors are NOT taking part, Alex, in the fencin, rowin, boxin, kayakin, weightliftin & swimmin.”
“These barriers desperately need to be broken down in order to facilitate workplace inclusion which will not only boost social mobility, but also productivity, efficiency and fulfilment in the workplace.”
Not only is this an incomprehensibly rude and personal attack to make, especially from someone far less qualified to discuss such things, but Scott also revealed that, due to growing up in an abusive household, she suffered from a speech impediment when she was younger. This is something that continues to rear its head when she feels under pressure.
Aside from being rude and offensive then, without knowing the context of someone’s lived experiences, comments like this can also cause worsen existing trauma. They “create a negative cycle, whereby regional, working-class and minority-ethnic accents are heard less in some careers or positions of authority, reinforcing anxiety and marginalisation for those speakers.”
Accent barriers continue
Indeed, a survey conducted by specialist talent acquisition software provider, Tribepad, revealed that despite the Conservative’s “levelling up” agenda, there is a clear North-South divide when it came to candidate concerns that their accent would impact their chances of getting a job. People in cities like Liverpool (17.2 per cent), Leeds (16.5 per cent), Newcastle (15.1 per cent) and Birmingham (14 per cent) were among the most likely to believe that their accent would be a barrier to getting a job or a promotion.
These barriers desperately need to be broken down in order to facilitate workplace inclusion which will not only boost social mobility, but also productivity, efficiency and fulfilment in the workplace.
Featured image courtesy of William McCue via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
In article image courtesy of Fiona Scott, Scott Media (permission for use granted by owner).
