Perspectives on the male speech-language pathologist

Although many professions are reporting greater gender neutrality, the opposite appears to be the case in speech-language pathology and audiology. The number of men in speech-language pathology and audiology has always been small. In 1925, 40% of the original members of the American Academy of Speech Correction were male (Bender, 1989). Each subsequent decade has seen the gender gap between male and female professionals widen (see chart illustrating the steady decline of male ASHA members between the years 1968 and 1992). When one considers only speech-language pathology, the gap between numbers of males and of females is even greater. According to ASHA's membership database, in December 1993 only 6.0% of ASHA-certified speech-language pathologists were men (ASHA, 1993).