GENDER & COMMUNICATION By Sheila Ritter

WHAT IS GENDER?  Gender Roles  Masculinity  Femininity  Androgyny  Sex  Biologically female  Biologically male  Sexual Orientation  Heterosexual  Homosexual  Bisexual  Asexual (Floyd, 2009, p. 56)

Gender Roles & Sex  Not one in the same  Sex is biological  Gender roles are what society wants us to fit into. (Floyd, 2009, p. 56)

Fitting into Gender Roles  Delicate  Fragile  Homemaker  Mother  Cooking and cleaning  V9H-8k V9H-8k  Rough and tough  Strong  Breadwinner  Guns  Sports  UB1fEw UB1fEw Feminine (girls)Masculine (boys)

Starting Young  Girls and boys are treated differently to help fit into gender roles.  Starts in the hospital.  Baby girl = pink  Baby boy = blue

Coaching Study  Study occurred at Southwestern University.  Sixty undergraduate students participated (30 men, 30 women) ages  Read fictional half time speeches given by high school coaches.  Half speeches contained expletives.  Half were given to female teams, half to male teams.  Participants rated the effectiveness of the speech on a 7- point scale. ( Howell & Giuliano, 2011)

Coaching Study Result  When speech contained expletives, male participants found less effective when directed at a female team.  Men found expletive use to be more inappropriate when directed at female players.  Women’s perceptions are not affected by gender of players.  Cursing behavior perceived differently by men and women. (Howell & Giuliano, 2011)

Women Expressive talk: express emotions and build relationships. Intimacy Closeness (Floyd, 2011, p. 67)

Men Instrumental talk: convey information. Solve problems Accomplish things (Floyd, 2011, p. 67)

Power Struggle  More powerful speech  Directive  Less powerful speech  More attentive to others  Seeks validations menwomen (Floyd, 2011)

Emotional Availability (Toddler Study)  Mother- toddler and father- toddler dyads from 113 families.  California’s Central Valley  Mother’s ages 19 to 44 years  Father’s ages 21 to 50  Mother and fathers filled out questionnaires and were observed and videotaped with children separately.  Rated on scale of parent sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness and nonhostility.  Rated on child responsiveness and involvement. (Lovas, 2005)

Toddler Study Results  In all variables, mother daughter dyads did the best, with mother son close behind.  Sensitivity  Mother daughter rated the highest  Mother son rated second  Father daughter rated third  Father son rated the lowest  Both mothers and fathers are more sensitive with daughters. (Lovas, 2005)

The Power of “I”  Men use more “I” statements  Women use more “we” and “they” statements (Floyd, 2009, p.71)

Meet in the Middle?  Masculine and feminine are good in different ways  Meet in the middle  Embrace both

Works Cited  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  October 17,  Floyd, K. (2009). Interpersonal Communication: The Whole Story. New York, NY: McGraw- Hill.  Howell, J. L., & Giuliano, T. A. (2011). The Effect of Expletive Use and Team Gender Perceptions of Coaching Effectiveness. Journal of Sport Behavior, 34(1), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.  Lovas, G. S. (2005). Gender and patterns of emotional availability in mother–toddler and father–toddler dyads. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(4), doi: /imhj.20056