Gender gap in communication

by: Mohamed Ash-had

 

(enlabaaco.net)

“Communication is not only the essence of being human, but also a vital property of life.”

John piece

Communication is a process of exchanging ideas, expressions information from one person to another. Communication can be expressed in written form, orally, and with body language. It is simply transmitting of a message from sender to a receiver in an understanding manner. The messages are being exchange in the means of verbal communication mode and non-verbal communication mode. Most of the times, verbal communication methods are in the form of face-to-face speaking, persuasive speeches, written books, journals, electronic publications, and etc. But there is always the non-verbal communication – the body language of people which sometimes talk louder than noise and written information. Oral communications are making a huge role of our daily routine activities.

It is believed that the communication manner might be different from one person to another. Some peoples are borne with the good physical ability of communicational skills and some are born without or poor communicational skills. Afterwards those people develop such skills by enhancing speaking, listening, and then directly through the education. Communication manner might also be changed by the social and cultural behavior and the belief of the society. It is also a widely believed concept that there is gender gap in communication. The focus of this context is about the truth that whether there is gender gap in communication.

Many researchers observed gender inequality characterizes much daily communication, reflecting differences in men’s and women’s life experiences, social status, power (Henley et al., 1985)

The communication difference of gender starts from the first ages of childhood. At these stages male and female are acquiring and using different communication styles and behaviors. Male and female living in the same area might have different communicational styles and behavior. For example: the children who are exposed in the open society learn the communication styles of that particular society. The children, who live with their parents or families, learn the communication styles of their family members. Moreover, the age differences in the same area are having different communicational styles. For example: the communication styles of the elders are different from the younger generations. We are facing similar types of problems in Maldives. The younger generations are using the customized Dhivehi languages. The style and the words the Maldivian youth use in their communication are widely different from that of elder people. Different scholars have contributed to the thinking of gender gap in communication.

 “Learning would be exceedingly laborious not to mention hazardous, if people had to solely on the effects of their own action to inform what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing other one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasion this coded information serves as a guide for action.”

                   - Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977 (Cherry, 2011)

The Social Learning Theory, demonstrated in studies by Albert Bandura. According to Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, people learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors.

“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura).

The above quote by Bandura help us in making a fair judgment that people learn through observing others’ behavior and the theory clearly explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. Since the communication that takes place between a parent and a child has such an important role of their acquisition of behavior, communication patterns that may influence gender tendencies should be examined. (McNaugton, nd). Most of the children spend several times playing, and they mostly spend these times with the friends from same gender. Male groups are competitive and try to one up each other. They establish a group hierarchy, giving each member a specific function, unlike female who want all group members to be equal and build intimacy. Most of the time male play team games that have clear winner and losers. These types of interactions help males develop a competitive and independent communication style. (Syez, 2010). Hence the communication differences starts from the ages of childhood, and these fundamental skills make wider when they grow up. Also the communication styles changes according to the surrounding environment of their living.

The physical appearance is not the only differences between men and women. Furthermore, there are various biological, behavioral, physical and ethical differences within genders. These differences make huge influences on communicational gap between genders. Firstly, the women are taking all the issues more seriously, and focus on the solution. So the relationship is more bonded in between women. Men, on the other hand mostly focus on the issue which makes them more individual. So the relationships in between men to men are inferior to woman. “Psychologist Shelley E. Taylor coined the phrase “tend and befriend” after recognizing that during times of stress women take care of themselves and their children (tending) and form strong group bonds (befriending). The hormone oxytocin  is released during stress in everyone. However, estrogen tends to enhance oxytocin resulting in calming and nurturing feelings whereas testosterone, which men produce in high levels during stress, reduces the effects of oxytocin” (Hensley, 2009). Secondly, the physical external characteristics of the body are totally different in men and women. The skeletal systems of the women are weaker and more fragile than men. The muscular system is also differs between genders. These differences also make the communication barrier between men and women. For example most of the women try to avoid the rush activities and physically they are not participating such activities. On the other hand, men are known to be fully participated in such activities and mostly this control the command of the activities. Thirdly, the characteristics of women voice are smooth, calm, low pitched while the men’s voice is strong and high pitched. So the strong character of men’s voice makes strong personality. Finally, the size of the men’s and women’s brain has several differences. “Typically, men’s brains are 11-12% bigger than women’s brains” (Hensley, 2009). The size of the brain has nothing to do with intelligence in the gender, but the control of body activities and nervous system is affected. Thus, the solutions handling, the physical external characteristics, the voice and the intelligence of human brain makes communicational differences in genders.

Today the issue of the difference between men’s and women’s use of language raises a big debates among sociolinguists, psychologists and other scholars. “Noam Chomsky assumes that all people have a basic sense of language, or rather of grammar, in them: Generative grammar (Chomsky: 1966)” (Massey, 2005). Those differences may vary from culture to culture; country to country, even the religious perspective also makes the language differences between genders. By the help of different theories, psychologists contrast many of the differences between women’s and men’s uses of languages. Johnson and Meinhof (1997) claim that men’s and women’s languages are based on the similar linguistic rules. Cultural differences are formed in childhood when boys and girls interact within their groups that have various spoken patterns, styles and ways of interpretation.

Applying to some researches, Holmes(1995) reveals that women prefer to use supportive questions, with the help of which they involve a person into a talk, while men usually apply to the questions that require short answers. This difference is explained by the fact that men want to receive factual information from their conversations, but women are more interested in the very process conversations. For instance, female prefer to be engaged in private conservations, while males are used to speak in public; women’s like to gossip and men like to tell jokes (Tannen, 1990). Studies consistently find those women are generally more expressive than men, verbally and nonverbally (cossettle, Pomerleau, Malcuit and Kaczorowski, 1996) (McNaugton, nd).  Hence, the language difference of male and female make the gender differences in communications.

Each day around the world men and women communicate repetitively with members of the opposite gender. Both men and women communicate different manner in the working environment. The type or the size of the gap depend on the types of work, behavior of the work force, and also the regulation of the working environment is a big influenced factor by the working environment. In the working environment, women share their personal information, offer personal stories, on the other hand, man avoid sharing or seize their personal stories. And also most of the women share their personal stories the opposite gender, but the men do this very rarely or some men share their personal experiences. Women are in the habit of asking a lot of questions before they take up any task in the working environment, on the other hand, most of the men jump into the task and want to be private. Men tend to argue more and find it interesting to disagree, but women often seek agreement and see disagreement as more threatening to relationship. For a long time, mostly the high ranked or the senior post jobs are filled by men. But today the trend has been changed; many women are taking over the strategic positions. But the leadership styles of the gender makes differences in between them. “Mostly men take on task-oriented, autocratic, command-and-control, and punishment-oriented styles. But on the other hand, women are taking on democratic, transformational and reward-oriented styles.” (Eagley, nd)

In conclusion, communication is very important part of daily life, without which the human needs cannot be done accordingly. Today many researchers have a great debate about the gender gap in communication. According to researchers’ who have studies human beings from infancy through adulthood have found many differences between the sexes. The communications starting from the early child hood and it continues differently by different ages. Some theorists defines people learn everything from the surrounding environment. The physical differences also make a good role to communicational differences in genders. Finally, the communications style of men and women have different styles in the working environment. To sum up, the theorists’ studies have put a great weight in to believing that there really is the gender gap in communication.

THANK YOU

Bibliography

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Eagley, P. (nd). Business women differ from business men in style, Not skill. Retrieved june 05, 2011, from coaching-for-new-women-managers.com: http://www.coaching-for-new-women-managers.com/busines women.html

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Hensley, A. (2009, 06 19). Differences between men and womens brain. Retrieved 05 06, 2011, from www.mastersofhealthcare.com: http://www.mastersofhealthcare.com/blog/2009/10-big-differences-between-mens-and-women-brains/

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Syez, A.-M. B. (2010, 10 17). Gender differences in communication. Retrieved 06 08, 2011, from ww.suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/gender-communication-differences-childhood-communication-a297967