DAAD Project: Gender Construction among Children in Germany, Sweden, and Italy
Duration: July to December 2025
Children look at a globe
A child speaks into a microphone.
Image: Dr. Riccarda FunkProject information
Project lead: Riccarda Funk, with collaboration of Christine Ericsdotter NordgrenExternal link (Stockholm) and Giovanni AbeteExternal link (Naples)
This DAAD research project examines the acoustic and perceptual characteristics of gender in prepubertal voices, comparing children from Germany, Sweden, and Italy. The project is thematically linked to the DFG long-term study “The acoustic and perceptual correlates of gender in children’s voices”.
Within the framework of the DAAD funded project, previous findings with German-speaking children will be supplemented by a comparative cross-sectional study involving children aged six to ten years from Stockholm and Naples. The goal is to determine to what extent linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence the construction of gender in prepubertal voices. Additionally, listening experiments with German, Swedish, and Italian participants will be conducted to analyze the influence of linguistic and cultural contexts on the perception of gender.
It is assumed that gender-specific acoustic features of boys’ and girls’ voices differ across the three countries. Such differences may be shaped by linguistic structures and cultural conceptions of gender roles – as well as the ways in which listeners perceive the gender of voices.