Chapter 5:
Gendered Verbal Communication
I.
Verbal communication expresses
cultural views of gender
II.
Gendered styles of verbal
communication
 Male

generic language excludes women
Chairman
 Spotlighting

Highlighting a person’s sex

Lady doctor
 Women
defined by appearance or relationship
with others
 Men
defined by activities or positions
 Coverage

Focuses more on women’s appearance than skill
 Coverage

of women’s sports
of rape or abuse
Irrelevant descriptions of victims
 Language
reflects social views of women as passive
and men as active in terms of sexual activity

Men expected to initiate

Language makes that seem acceptable
 In
the past, American unmarried were women
called spinsters or old maids
 In
Japan, unmarried women are called leftovers,
underdogs, or a parasite single
 Alternatives
to traditional ways of naming
ourselves:



Some women choose to retain their birth name when
they marry
Some men and women adopt hyphenated names
Matriarchal
Naming
is important
 Sexual harassment
 Date rape
 Ms.
We
change our language to change our
understandings
 We reject some terms
 We create new ones
 Stereotype
- generalization about an entire class
of phenomena

Women: emotional and weak

Men: rational and strong
 Women
who use assertive speech are described as
arrogant
 Men
who employ emotional language are described
as weak
 English
 Queer
language encourages polarized thinking
performative theory challenges polarized
language
 Language
reflects cultural values and has a
powerful influence on our perceptions
 Language
devalues females by trivializing
women:
 Equate with food, animals
 Calling women girls
 Sexually active women are called derogatory
names
 Androgynous




people:
Communicate in a range of ways – flexible
Higher self-esteem – better adjusted
More effective in the workplace
Happier marriages
 Langer

(1979) “language sustains cultural life”
Labov (1972): a speech community is group of people who
share communication norms
 Males
and females are socialized into different speech
communities
 Discussing

general differences
not absolute
 Maltz
and Boker (1982): Sex-segregated groups
remain the norm for U.S. children (2-3 years of age)
 Boy
games
Vs.
Girl games

Competitive
Pairs or small groups

Clear goals
No preset goals and roles

Rough play
Not highly structured

Organized by rules and roles
Spend more time talking
Boys’


Vs.
Girls’
Use communication to:
Assert ideas
Create relationships
Achieve something
Attract attention
Establish egalitarian
relationships
Include others
Compete for “talk stage”
Show sensitivity
 Girls
engage in more cooperative play
 Boys
engage in more instrumental/competitive
play
 Communication
rules for men and women are
versions of those learned in childhood
 1.People
socialized in feminine speech communities
use language to foster connections
 2.Establishing

equality is important
Match experiences for symmetry
 3.
Support for others

Express emotion

Attention to relationship level

Questions probe for understanding


How does this effect our relationship
How do you feel about our decision
 4.
Conversational maintenance work

Efforts to sustain conversation

Opens the door to others


How was school
Do you have anything to add
 5.
Responsiveness

Eye contact, nod, tell me more

Affirms other person


That’s interesting
Encourages elaboration
 6.
Personal, concrete style

Details

Personal disclosures
 7.

Tentativeness
Verbal hedges


Qualify statements


I kind of feel…
This is probably a dumb question but ...
Tag questions


…wasn’t it
…you know

Seen as representing powerlessness

However, reflect desire to keep conversation open
 1.






Effort to establish status and control
Asserting ideas and authority
Telling jokes
Challenging others
More I-references
Avoid disclosing information
Give advice
 2.

Instrumentality
Problem-solving efforts


 3.



Women feel men don’t care about feelings
Content vs. Relational focus
Conversational command
Talk more often – greater length
Reroute conversations
Interrupt more frequently

Stage hogging vs. Confirming
 4.

More forceful and authoritative
 5.

Direct and assertive
More abstract
Distanced from personal feelings

Deductive vs. Inductive reasoning
 6.

Less emotionally responsive
Minimal response cues


May be perceived as lack of involvement
Lack of self-disclosure, expressed sympathy

May be seen as vulnerable
 Low
context (LC) communication is one in
which the mass of the information is vested
in the explicit code.
 High
context (HC) communication is one in
which most of the information is already in
the person, while very little is in the coded,
explicit, transmitted part of the message
(Hall 1976).