Gender Differences in Communication Men and Women

Gender Differences in Communication

Men and women are different one from the other in looks, in sexuality, in their social roles and in their communication styles as well. This paper compares and contrasts how males and females are different in their styles of communication.

Gender Differences in Language

Since humans in this society spend approximately "70% of our working hours communicating" (and 30% of that time entails the spoken language), this is a vital topic to address. And the teacher emphasizes that how we say what we say is crucial to good communication. Women and men have "broadly different styles of speaking and establishing social status," the author states. And since nature is only responsible for 1% of the differences in communication approaches between men and women, that means the social and cultural environment plays a huge role in how men and women speak and communicate.

Girls learn through their environmental background to use more intimacy in their relationships; their style of attempting to establish intimacy as the foundation for a friendship is sometimes called "collaboration-oriented" -- their conversations are based more on being friends or interacting to build a relationship. Girls will play house and in that house their will be friends meeting friends, communicating.

Boys, meanwhile, are more concerned with getting tasks done, not with practicing good communication. Boys are driven by goals, not by the need for associations and friendships. Boys will talk to others about how to build or fix something, but they really seek to be competitive and bolster their status among other boys. So rather than "collaboration-oriented" boys are "competition-oriented," according to the Contemporary Topics.

The influence that parents have on their children is powerful. Parents tend to buy boys things like trucks, cars, erector sets and toys that are linked to construction and road-building. Hence, boys are encouraged to use communication that relates to their growing up playtime. Parents tend to buy girls dolls and other domestic-themed items, hence girls grow up as nurturers, and their communication reflects that.

As men, males communicate because they are giving information, they are reporting on something of importance to them; that kind of communication is "goal-oriented." It's not a myth that men resist stopping to ask directions, it is a fact, and the reason reflects back to their communication style -- they like to be and want to be in control. They want to be leaders, and leaders don't stop and ask where the nearest grocery store is -- leaders seek it out without help. It gives men a sense of authority and of status to be in control enough to find out for themselves.