Transcript Communication Hot Topic:

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
Men
Women
Independence
Communication
Power
Connection
Accomplishments
Relationships
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.
Comparison of NonVerbal Signals:
Men
Women
They take up more physical
They take up less physical
space when sitting or standing, space, sitting with arms and
with arms and legs stretched
legs toward their body
out away from 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:
Men
They use loudness to emphasize
points
Women
They use pitch and inflection to
emphasize points
They sound more monotonous in
They sound more emotional in
speech. They use approximately 3 speech. They use approximately 5
tones when talking
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.
www.geocities.com/Wellesley/2052/genddiff.html