The Lady Who Won’t Buy a Ford

As most readers know, Ontario is going to the polls on June 7. At this point the Tories under Doug Ford appear to have a slight, soft lead. For students of communication, there is a lesson in the stats.

CBC’s Vote Compass survey (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/vote-compass-men-women-trust-leaders-1.4683933) completed May 29, 2018, suggests that among women, Ford scores 1.6 out of 10 on the question of trustworthiness and 1.9 on perceived competence. His major rivals scored respectively 5.9 and 3.0 on trustworthiness and 5.9 and 3.6 on perceived competence. In other words, Ford is barely in the game when it comes to female voters.

But the news is much better for him amongst men– the numbers are nearly double. Therein is the real lesson for communicators: same message but dramatically different uptakes by the two audiences.

Far be it from me to suggest reasons why Ford’s support amongst women is roughly half of what it is amongst men, but I won’t miss the chance to point out the clear lesson. Given that our audiences typically contain both females and males, every communicator needs to appreciate that there is a gender difference in response, particularly in areas of character assessment.

As interesting as it would be to explore why such differences exist, this is a briefing, not a book. The sole point of today’s note is to raise the issue and encourage writers and speakers to manage language and demeanour so as to recognize and connect with the different uptakes.

In today’s world where women, especially amongst the younger cohorts, are frequently over-represented in professions such as law and dentistry, and make up a significant proportion even in such traditional male bulwarks as engineering and management, the reality is that the recipient of your letter, e-mail, opinion, report, pleading or sales pitch could very well be a woman. Never forget it!