Radio 4 listen again: Do men and women speak the same language?
Ruth Wilson
Saturday, 16 May 2009 16:11 UTC
“Do men and women speak the same language? Do we use tone and pitch differently? And if so, why, and to what effect?” Jenni Murray on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour discusses gender and communication with Deborah Cameron, Professor of Language and Communication, University of Oxford, and Professor Sophie Scott from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London who are part of the ICA Conference: Our Speaking Selves on 17th May in London.
Deborah Cameron wrote The Myth of Mars and Venus Its very readable and interesting. Lots of pop psychology beliefs are taken apart in the light of recent research into language use in different contexts. In the Woman’s Hour interview Deborah thinks our need to see differences where they don’t exist is part of a ‘post feminist angst’ brought about the widespread erosion of marked gender differences in how we dress, behave, speak (in some parts of the world at least). Gender difference is integrated in how we understand the world, and it seems to be slipping away.
Updated 16 May 2009 16:12 UTC
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Replies
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I haven’t listened to the programme but I think it is so hard to generalise about these matters. Of course there are gender differences, but they aren’t universal – women and men borrow tactics from each other liberally in order to climb the greasy pole! For every Hillary Clinton there is a Michelle Obama and for each of those there is a Laura Bush. So, maybe I’m saying that I agree that a need to look for generalised differences is obscuring the need to provide a level playing field in the first place (a level playing field for everyone – it isn’t only about gender).
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I have listened to the broadcast, which raises a number of interesting points. My observation is that when I am working with groups of women and raise the question of gender differences in communication styles nearly all the women nod in recognition, so their everyday experience in the workplace is of a difference in communication styles. This may be confirmation bias but for many people it is more a realisation of what that niggling thing that they can’t quite put their finger on actually is. However, they are all women in one particular context. It is possible that differences in style are important in this context but not in general. It may also be that if these women were observed in their workplaces they would use the same communication style as the men though they might not be comfortable doing so. Given that both men and women use different communication styles in different contexts it seems unlikely that the differences would be hard-wired. For practical purposes, the question is should women adjust their styles to suit the predominant workplace style or should both men and women recognize that there are different styles and take them into account?
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Thanks Esther and Maxine. I agree with Esther that little is inherent. What it means to be male or female is very dependent on the context, and other things like race, class, age etc. But certain language conventions and patterns seem to reflect power structures: so, where power is unevenly distributed, the powerless often have to jump through certain linguistic hoops (so to speak) to gain credibility, or demonstrate they are not a threat…
I recommend Cameron’s book. She says that women “are obliged to walk a tightrope of impression management, continually demonstrating their professional competence while also making clear that they have not lost their femininity”.
And she quotes one writer (Kulick): “widespread cultural attitudes hold that being a man is self-evident, whereas being a woman is a complicated set of procedures that require careful adherence to detailed, explicit instructions (often issued by men) about how to walk, talk, sit, eat, dress, move and display affect”. Exhausting! :-)
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