Voice. Everyone has one, but according to Mary Meares, not all voices are heard.

Meares is an assistant professor, the graduate program director and director of graduate internships in the department of communication studies at the University. She studies organizational communication and how factors such as diversity, leadership and socialization influence experiences in organizations.

Meares said having a voice is having the ability to get help when you need and to have your concerns addressed.

Growing up, Meares noticed that “some people got paid attention to and some people didn’t get paid attention to,” she said.

Her lecture was the first of the Feminism Spoken Here Brown Bag Series, coordinated by the Women’s Resource Center and the Women’s Studies program. A new lecture will be held on the first Wednesday of every month.

In her lecture entitled, “The Challenges of Voice in the Workplace for Women and Minorities (and How to Create a Better Organization),” Meares described a direct correlation between interpersonal communication and a positive or negative experience in the workplace.

Ideally, a workplace should have a positive interpersonal and supervisor environment, and employees should feel like they are contributing their strengths while also engaging with their peers, she said.

Meares added that unsatisfied employees fall under four classifications when it comes to their outlook on their job:

• The “optimists” are people who are proactive for the betterment of their workplace, but fail to make progress
• The “realists” believe that their job is a necessity and simply do it, no matter how unpleasant
• Those who liked their job under previous management, but are unhappy with new management and
• Those who are the new managers but are inexperienced at their new positions.

Why don’t these employees speak up for themselves in their unhappiness? Meares said she has been curious and conscious of this “question of voice” from an early age.

“The white male experience doesn’t represent everyone’s experience,” said Meares.

Traditionally, women and minorities are muted groups, because they often have less structural power, Meares noted.

Mears said four types of people exist in organizational communication:

• The “privileged,” who have no problem speaking up for themselves and rarely understand why others don’t do the same
• The “muted-but-engaged,” who have frustrations, but are unable to specify the source
• The “angrily disengaged,” who not only feel anger but victimized as well
• The “resigned,” who blame the system and believe in no solution.

Jessica Kuperberg, a senior majoring in chemistry, described herself as one of the privileged.

“Speaking up was never a problem I had doing,” Kuperberg said.

Kuperberg said the event opened her eyes to organizational communication.

“I think it’s really going to make me look around when I’m at meetings, when I’m in a classroom, and say ‘who are those people who look like they want to say something, but maybe aren’t.’”

She looks forward to applying her newfound appreciation for voiced opinions to her position as the director of the Women’s Political Initiative in the SGA at the University.

“What we’re really trying to do is give women on campus a voice in the Alabama political arena,” Kuperberg said.

“Voice isn’t just something that comes out of your mouth; it’s the will to speak up and feeling comfortable enough to speak up,” Kuperberg said.

The Women’s Political Initiative, the SGA, the Women’s Resource Center and the Honors College Assembly will co-host another lecture series of women speakers during September and October.