Gender Differences in Communication

Language is a key component of the expression and construction of both group and individual identity. Differences in gender identity has resulted in the parallel development of genderlects and gender roles within society. Gender stereotypes and societal pressures of conformity heavily influences linguistic behaviour of different genders; leading to the generalisation where ‘women like silent men. They think they’re listening’ (Michael Achard). The further division between language choices between genders is stylised by the variation in their perceived functions for language.

The most important aspect that separates humans from animals is our means of communication through language. Each language holds unique characteristics that reflect its respective society to a certain extent. This leads to the question: Do men and women use language differently? How does language use relate to their role and society? Plainly stated, gender is a social elaboration of the biological sex.

Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies. Wardhaugh states different social norms defining the standards of being men or women, which has a profound influence on the language behavior shown by different genders. In other words, both men and women should possess the ability to show either masculinity or feminity through the language they use. When this ability overlaps with the other gender, however, one might be considered as as outsider of their own gender.

Finally the answer below will show how the media also portrays gender inequality and how it affects the people in society. Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, body hair and internal and external organs.

A lot of attention has been dedicated to the thought that women and men communicate very differently from one another. In this paper I am going to discuss the gender differences in communications between the opposite sexes. Many believe that gender plays a major role in communication but in all reality, that isn’t the case. Several factors play a part in how someone communicates with another person regardless of their sex. The main question is what role does gender play in communication or is it the roles our cultures put on genders’.

Gender: Male and Female In life, all living things are classified as male or female, depending on their physiology and their psychology. Females are supposed to act as feminine as possible and males are supposed to act as masculine as possible; though most males and females act in between. Men sometimes cry and females sometimes hit. Humans are naturenurtural, so distinguishing biology from gender is difficult in many cases. Gender describes the male and female characteristics that a society puts forth.

Www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca. Ms.Magazine, 1 Dec. 1994. Web. 13 Feb. 2015. <http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/learn/resources/fear-feminism-why-young-women-get-willies>.

To examine further we need to examine the key aspects of the biological, evolutionary, social constructionist and psychoanalytical perspectives focusing on similarities and differences regarding their accounts of sex and gender. Finally need to consider the ways in which these perspectives compliment, conflict or simply co-exist with one another. Often the term sex and gender are used interchangeably. Often this usage has lead to confusion therefore we have to begin by attempting to draw a distinction between the terms for discussing psychological perspectives in this paper. Traditionally, the word gender has been used to refer to the cultural aspect of what it is to be man or woman. '

Chapter 2: Gender differences in Conformity It is my belief that gender has a large influence on the way in which one is socialised, and thus, how one conforms in social situations. The term ‘gender’ refers to the socially constructed differences between male and females in our society. All aspects of social life, including work and home life, as well a social interaction, is organised around the dimension of this difference. These differences over time resulted in vast dissimilarities in the social behaviour between males and females. I believe this gap in behaviour has resulted in a difference in conformity between males and females, with the latter being the more socially inclined and thus more compelled to conform when put in unclear social situations.

Gender is how an individual views their identity, regardless of sex. Sex is biological in nature and determines one 's biological destiny. Gender, on the other hand, helps define one 's role within society. Lorber wrote: “Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, they have to be taught to be masculine or feminine” (1994). What if children aren’t taught to be masculine or feminine?