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Gender differences in communication
Gender differences in communication
Gender differences in communication
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It’s common knowledge that women are more creative at building social networks and breaking down communication barriers. In fact, though women’s mode of communication has often been dismissed as ‘girl talk,’ such skills can go a long way in the business and office setting. How come? Studies suggest that this unique form of interrelating with friends and peers that’s unique to women results in positive effects because it focuses on intimacy.
Since the modern business environment is built upon complex human networks where ‘face time’ and ‘connecting’ are essential to success and opportunity, the business woman’s ability to communicate with peers and superiors alike can be a boost to her career. Simply put, female employees—and even executives—can build stronger bonds than their male counterparts by engaging in age old “troubles talk” As its name suggest, troubles talk is to share your worries with a sympathetic counterpart. At its essence, troubles talk is girl talk. It’s all about connecting and empathy, devoid of the cold logic that governs men’s thinking. Consider it a soft but ...
In her article “But What Do You Mean” Deborah Tannen, claims that there is a huge difference in the style of communicating between men and women. Tannen breaks these down into seven different categories; apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. With each of these she compares men to women by explaining the common misconceptions that each of the genders do. The different style of communication can cause some problems at the workplace and even affect the environment. The different styles of communication has been around forever and almost becomes a “ritual”(299). Tannen is effective with mainly women and not men. She is primarily successful with women due to the fact that her tone targets women, also the organization
The movie main character is Cady Heron who is a homeschooled girl. Her and her family lived in Africa for 15 years. They return back to the states and place Cady into a public school for the first time. Cady meets her classmates and finds a few good friends the introduce her to a group of girls called the Plastics. She ends up joining the plastics with the motive of bring them down because her new friend don’t like them very much and thought it would be funny. However, she eventually gets assimilated into the group of three unkind girls and starts to be just like them.
In the introduction of Deborah Tannen’s “Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”, she compares and contrasts the ways men and women communicate. This reminds me of what I tell people that are struggling in their relationships. Women and men express themselves differently. Women think, but men act. If you can’t wrap your head around this, being in a relationship with anyone is going to be hard. Yet, this is such a basic way of looking at this issue. Not only are the genders vastly different, but each person relates to the world around them in a certain way. He or she also needs to be related to in a specific way. Looking at personalities and personal histories can give a better look at the way we communicate with each other. Tannen examines
For decades men have dominated the work force of America. It was not until recently that women began entering the business world and to this day they continue to battle for equality in the workplace. Leadership positions and salary negotiations are what normally come to mind when discussing the obstacles that women face at work. An article that appeared in Time Magazine called “Go Ahead- Cry at Work”, by Anne Kreamer, discusses Kreamer’s personal challenges with expressing her emotions at work, along with the overall struggle that women face when trying to find a “socially appropriate way to express legitimate anger in the workplace” (Kreamer). The article discusses the need not to eliminate emotion from the work place, as many people currently do, but that “emotions are who we are” (Kreamer) and we should embrace them when they come about. Kreamer argues that women should being able to express negative emotion at work without being seen as unprofessional or weak. “This is not to suggest that being embarrassed, frustrated, or upset at work is inappropriate but rather that when colleagues show emotion, we should learn to interpret why those particular feelings were triggered”. Through personal experiences, research and surveys, the author found many employees, men and women combine are unsure as to how to express their emotion in the workplace.
Do men and women effectively communicate in the same way, or is it just a conversation of misunderstanding? There is constantly a new interest in whether men and women converse successfully. Professor and journalist, Deborah Tannen writes, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other?” Tannen compares and contrasts all conversational styles, and explains how the expectation of dialogue affects how men and women converse. Tannen focuses on the subject of marriage and the imbalance of interest between male and female couples. The contrasting perspective however comes from, Deborah Cameron, author of, “What Language Barrier”. Cameron conveys that the stereotypes left upon male and female communication
Deborah Tannen is the author of the book You Just Don't Understand where she analyzes the different meanings of communication between men and women. Her research shows that women and men use the same words and phrases and yet can interpret and react to those same words and phrases differently. Tannen compares the two sexes to find men use their conversation as a type of competition or to preserve their independence. For example, men talk about their knowledge regarding sports, cars, women, exc. Meanwhile, women try to foster intimacy through communication. For instance, women often talk and relate on a personal level. Throughout Tannen's book she uses "cross-cultural communication" to describe the differences between the language of men and women. Tannen observed that, "For males, conversation is the way you negotiate your status in the group and keep people from pushing you around; you use talk to preserve your independence. Females, on the other hand, use conversation to negotiate closeness and intimacy; talk is the essence of intimacy, so being best friends means sitting and talking. For boys, activities, doing things together, are central. Just sitting and talking is not an essential part of friendship. They're friends with the boys they do things with" (Tannen 95).
In the essay, “Sex, Lies, and Conversations,” linguist Deborah Tannen argues about men and women having different styles of communicating with each other. She also states that misunderstandings between the husband and wife can affect marriage and can lead to divorces. She describes how men and women communicate contrarily which originated in childhood socialization. Because conversation is the cornerstone of their friendship, young girls often share secrets, thoughts, feelings and impressions; moreover, this is how girls and women build intimacy in their relationships. On the other hand, young boys don’t assume that conversations build their relationships, but they’d rather do more things together. Boys are more inclusive, and more hierarchical
Brianna Shular has been a student at Pelham Academy since 11/28/2016. Prior to her arrival, Brianna struggled with appropriate interactions with peers, emotional dysregulation and frequently AWOLing from home and programs. She demonstrated poor impulse control, verbal expression, problem solving and planning skills. Brianna’s current goals is to learn how strategies for navigating social interactions, improve her interpersonal skills, identify and practice effective coping skills, and work on developing a healthy and positive identity.
Further evidence of communicative differences exist between men and women in various other social settings as well. Consider, for example, those individuals employed in customer service-related Jobs. While in JC Penny, I noticed that female customer service representatives were more apt to offer immediate friendly assistance than the male reps. Men are not as cocky nor as confident in this sort of situation; their eyes tend to dart around the area of the store while the eyes of a women remain focused upon the eyes of the customer. The men seem to communicate with a lot less smiles. Apparently they have to get past a certain “ice-breaking'; point before they will feel comfortable with a genuine look of happiness.
Lieberman, Simma. “Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles” Simma Lieberman Associates (undated). Retrieved February 25, 2010<
I don’t know where I would be without my best friend. The person who keeps me sane when my family is driving me crazy, or the person who will stay up with me all night to support me when I have a last minute paper due in a class; I don’t know where I would be without that support. I found this support in my best friend, my sister from another father, Regina. Regina is an eccentric, overbearing, lover of all things natural type of girl. She lives life to the fullest and never backs down from a challenge. She is funny, full of whit and sharper than a tack fresh out of the box. Although it hasn’t always been a smooth road for us we still remain friends to this day.
The long-running stereotype that men and women cannot be “just friends” is demonstrated from casual friends all the way to friendships at work. And with 61 percentage of women in the workplace in 1990 (The First Measured Century), it’s a stereotype that is getting harder to break. For years, development of men and women’s friendships has been a trope in TV and movies. Boy and girl become friends, guy develops feelings, girl gets boyfriend, guy becomes jealous and confesses feelings, and girl realizes she’s been in love with guy all along (Borreli, L. 2016). These expectations of men and women in friendships are bad for business though. Cross-sex friendships are crucial in the workplace. Friends in the workplace provide information, networking, and support that are invaluable for both job performance and satisfaction (Kimmel & Aronson 2014, 542). Bonds between cross-sex friendships are charging according to a study. Men and women often see each other as friends or confidants rather than romantic interests. There are other types of bonds than romantic connections that can occur and does occur between males and
Henningsen, D., Braz, M., & Davies, E. (2008). WHY DO WE FLIRT? Journal of Business Communication, 45(4), 483-502.
After reading the different studies and research in the chapter I have a much different view than before. I reflected on my whole life and noticed that when I am in a more private and relaxed setting my wife usually does a lot of the talking. But in more formal settings like when we attend seminars together or when we took a college class together, I am doing more of the talking. This is just one example of how this study actually reflects my everyday life. Another example of how this chapter changed my view is the way male and female speech occurs in my class. I was really taken back from my teaching and I noticed that this is true of my classroom and I didn 't even know this! Many times when a girl answers a question or tries to provide her different insight of the question provided I sense that many feel she is trying to show off. This chapter honestly will helped me get rid of many assumptions I 've always had. I will also try to ensure all my students have the social confidence in my classroom and try to help all students contribute to the
Women leaders have the crucial soft skills of empathy, innovation, facilitation, and active listening (Masaoka, 2006). They also have first-hand life experiences that bring technical skills and experiences from the street level to the workplace (Masoka, 2006). Women often build stronger relationships with clients and outside contacts than their male counterparts. This relationship building skill, provides a key aspect which helps to move businesses forward (Giber et al., 2009). Fortune 500 companies with a high percentage of women significantly outperformed those with fewer women. Companies with the highest representation of women showed higher returns on equity than those with fewer women employees (Giber et al., 2009). Thus, future organizations may have a higher percentage of female leaders than we have experienced in the past. Future leaders must ensure that there is equality among the workforce and that women are accurately represented among the