Gender and Communication: Are There Decisive Differences?

Much has been written about gender differences—particularly between men and women—in regard to communication. Primarily relating to gender communication differences in professional settings, Pearson (Advertising: Principles & practice. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,, 1981) presented the terms masculine rhetoric versus feminine rhetoric, with the first one being decisive, direct, rational, authoritative, logical, aggressive, and impersonal, and the second being cautious, receptive, indirect, emotional, conciliatory, subjective, and polite (Baker in Management Communication Quarterly 5:36, 1991). Some of the most frequently mentioned differences in gender communication are that, (1) women are more vocal than men; (2) women are more verbally skilled than men; (3) men are more action oriented in their use of language, while women are more relationship oriented; (4) men are more competitive in their language use, while women are more cooperative; and (5) the above differences lead to regular communication frictions between men and women (Cameron, 2007). Some other communication differences often highlighted are, that men mainly communicate to support their prominence, while women do so to build relationships; men smile less than women, women use more paralanguage (nonverbal indicators of listening and understanding) than men do; men will use communicative touching more to confirm their dominance (pat on the back or shoulder), while women will touch for connection (arm-touching or offering a hug), and women use more eye contact than men (Admin/Public Relations …, 2017). This chapter will outline, then analyze, the most common stereotypical classifications of gender-related communication, provide a contemporary view on whether these classifications are myths or reality, and how they should be addressed in this third decade of the twenty-first century.