The Gender Communication Handbook: Conquering Conversational Collisions between Men and Women

CHAPTER 2

He Speaks, She Speaks

What Different Things They Say

When I talk about women’s and men’s characteristic ways of speaking, I always emphasize that both styles make sense and are equally valid in themselves.

—Deborah Tannen (1994, p. 23)

Learning Objectives

• Distinguish between popular myths and the reality of sex differences in speech style.
• Identify examples of women’s polite forms of speech.
• Identify examples of men’s task-oriented forms of speech.
• Examine the underpinnings of gender linguistic styles.
• Create the awareness that one style is not preferred over another style.
• Identify strategies, such as an androgynous approach or code switching, to enhance speech communication between the sexes.

Introduction

We know women and men are ...