Why Do So Many Digital Assistants Have Feminine Names?

The simplest explanation is that people are conditioned to expect women, not men, to be in administrative roles--and that the makers of digital assistants are influenced by these social expectations. "It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes," the Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass, told CNN in 2011. "It's a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices." Which sounds nice, but doesn't necessarily hold up to cultural scrutiny. Just ask any woman who works in radio about how much unsolicited criticism she receives about the way she talks.