Communication Hot Topic: Gender

Defining Gender Refers to the social relationship or roles and responsibilities of men and women, the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviours of both women and men (femininity and masculinity) that are learned, change over time and vary within and between cultures.

A Word about Stereotypes Both women and men can be nurturing, aggressive, task-focused, or sentimental. What is important to think about, however, is that women and men sometimes perceive the same messages to have different meanings. In fact, it may be as a result of the differences in message interpretation that the "battle of the sexes" occurs.

Values MenWomen IndependenceCommunication PowerConnection AccomplishmentsRelationships

Regulating Intimacy vs. Negotiating Heirarchy Studies indicate that women, to a greater extent than men, are sensitive to the interpersonal meanings that lie "between the lines" in the messages they exchange with their mates.

Societal expectations often make women responsible for regulating intimacy, or how close they allow others to come. For that reason, it is argued that women pay more attention than men to the underlying meanings about intimacy that messages imply.

Men on the other hand, to a greater extent than women, are more sensitive to "between the lines meanings" about status. For men, societal expectations are that they must negotiate hierarchy, or who's the captain and who's the crew.

Men Women They take up more physical space when sitting or standing, with arms and legs stretched out away from their body They take up less physical space, sitting with arms and legs toward their body They gesture away from the body They gesture toward the body They assume more reclined positions when sitting and lean backward when listening They assume more forward positions when sitting and lean forward when listening They are not as sensitive to the communication cues of others They have greater sensitivity and acuity toward other people's nonverbal communication cues They tend to approach women more closely in terms of their personal space They do not approach men as closely in terms of their personal space Comparison of NonVerbal Signals:

MenWomen Comparison of NonVerbal Signals: They use loudness to emphasize points They use pitch and inflection to emphasize points They sound more monotonous in speech. They use approximately 3 tones when talking They sound more emotional in speech. They use approximately 5 tones when talking They ask fewer questions to stimulate conversation They ask more questions to stimulate conversations They rarely discuss their personal life in business They tend to establish more business relationships through discussing their personal life They make more declarative statements (i.e., "It's a nice day.") They make more tentative statements and use "tag endings" or upward inflections which make statements sound like questions (i.e., "It's a nice day, isn't it?")

And now for a little humor...

If you want to read further... Dr. Lillian Glass' book, He Says, She Says: Closing the Communication Gap Between the Sexes (The Putnam Berkeley Group) she details her findings on the many differences in the way men and women communicate, both verbally and non-verbally.