Many of us have discussed how the “other” gender communicates differently with people, and numerous books have been created claiming to offer the answer to understanding the opposing gender. But what have we learned about gendered communication styles?
1. What Is a Communication Style?
An individual’s regular manner of engagement can be described in various ways (usually in the context of communication skills training and often about personality types). Aggressive, passive-aggressive, passive, or forceful are some examples.
See also the difference model. Modes of communication are stereotypically connected with gender. A masculine communication style is perceived as instrumental, functional, and task-oriented, and a feminine communication style is seen as expressive, social/relational, and person-oriented.
2. What Is the Purpose of Communication-Based on Gender?
Boys and girls are frequently segregated as children, limiting them to socializing with people of their gender and learning a different culture and gender conventions. As a result, men and women interact differently, with both genders preferring to communicate for different reasons. Men, for example, are more inclined to communicate as a means of maintaining their position and independence, whereas women see communication as a means of forming friendships and developing relationships. Men use speech to negotiate power, achieve victories, prevent defeat, and provide advice, among other things. Communication is a technique for women to grow closer, understand, and achieve equality or symmetry.
3. How Do Men and Women Approach Communication?
One of the most common differences between men and women lies in communicating. Women are more likely to express their feelings through direct speech than men. While men are more likely to make blunt statements, women are more likely to express their emotions through body language and nonverbal cues. In addition, they are more expressive and less impulsive than their male counterparts.
Men were more direct and self-emphasizing during discussions between men and women. In the publication, Campbell Leaper, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of California–Santa Cruz and the study’s lead researcher, notes that “self-emphasizing tactics largely work to advance the speaker’s thoughts and wishes.” Directives, repetition, and conflicts were all examples of self-emphasizing communication. This suggested that the males were more aggressively stating a plan of action (for example, “put down ‘water’ on our list” could have been a direct request made during the conversation).
According to Leaper, participants may have been cautious about wanting to be cooperative with one another, and the men may have used fewer commands than regular in their interactions.
On the other hand, women rely on justifications and indirect hints more than males. These consisted of modest validation requests (i.e., asking for the other person’s thoughts or support before voicing her own opinion), which are noticeably less intense than the men’s conversation style. On the one hand, this could be interpreted as timid or meek. Alternatively, unlike the masculine method, which may be perceived as too aggressive, the female communication style may have a beneficial impact on how well a conversation goes.
Men use more “distancing” responses, which are “negative responses such as making an irrelevant comment or trivializing the other discloser’s feelings,” when it comes to conversations involving getting vulnerable, sharing personal stories, and connecting, women are more able to share about themselves and listen more intently to their partner’s sharing. In contrast, men use more “distancing” responses, which are “negative responses such as making an irrelevant comment or trivializing the other discloser’s feelings.” Men are more likely than women to offer irrelevant comments after their counterparts revealed information in same-gender pairs. The most apparent difference between men and women in communication is how they express themselves. While men are more capable of maintaining a “poker face” in business settings, women can express their feelings spontaneously. Additionally, while men are more capable of controlling their emotions and making eye contact, they are more sensitive. As a result, they are better at gauging their partners’ reactions and nonverbal signals.
4. How Do Men and Women Differ in Communication Styles?
Women are more expressive, timid, courteous, and social regarding communication style, whereas men are more assertive and decisive. It is often seen as a result of the disadvantaged position of women in society, which puts them in a weaker section of people and gives them a weaker hand in gender roles.
5. How Does Gender Affect Communication Style?
Women have always had a lesser social position than men, and it is difficult to break free from societal preconceptions. From popular Disney movies to the Bible, they are all around us. This appears to be a reflection of women’s communication style. Women, for example, are more polite and talkative than men. For females, the process of communicating itself is valued; they are more concerned with making and keeping contacts and sharing their thoughts and feelings. On the other hand, men are looking to be valued by women while also emphasizing their standing in the hierarchy.
Many experts have attempted to explain why males find female communication styles challenging to comprehend. According to John Gray, communication styles reflect the diversity of gender beliefs, goals, and demands. Men are known to be goal-oriented, while women are known to be relationship-oriented. Observe your workday to notice the difference. Men, for example, are more self-affective at work because they desire to accomplish tangible results.
In contrast, women focus on building a friendly and helpful work environment and collaborating to reach a goal. They don’t have to be considered as the project’s leader. Overall, women communicate more civilized manner, refraining from swearing and employing intensifiers and tag questions, whereas males prefer to be treated as equals.
6. Which Women Mostly Use Communication Style?
Women have an advantage over men in a collaborative environment, as their collaborative style comes across as more inclusive. They also tend to be more assertive when showing empathy, while a man tends to use aggressiveness in a non-cooperative environment. Both genders have different preferences for body language, but both are highly expressive. When they communicate in a conversation, they have similar body movements.
During a collaboration, women’s communication styles tend to be more indirect and ambiguous than men’s. They tend to avoid confrontations and instead focus on nonverbal cues, making them more likely to be understood. If a man wants to communicate with a woman, she should use a dialogue style. When a woman uses a nonverbal communication style, she is more likely to hear her partner.
While men use directness and collaborative communication styles to convey their ideas, the opposite can be true. A woman’s collaborative communication style can come across as submissive and cynical, while a man’s directness comes across as aggressive. A man’s directness and expansive postures can infringe on a woman’s personal space or highlight their status cues. A man’s nonverbal cues are also perceived as more passive and weaker when used by a woman. For example, a man will nod to agree with a woman while a woman nods to another speaker.
When speaking to a woman, a man will not always have to use the same body language to get her point across. However, in a collaborative environment, women will be more likely to have a more robust listening style and greater empathy, while men will be more direct and assertive. But if a man is a dominant speaker, he will likely not listen to her views.
A woman’s collaborative style is the opposite of a man’s directness. He will use his hands more openly, while a man will only use his hands to direct the other person. If a woman has a dominant hand position, she will be more likely to make more eye contact with a man. If a woman has a mighty hand, he may not feel confident or assertive.
In a collaborative environment, men and women use different communication styles. In a male-dominated setting, women’s styles are more direct and aggressive. In a female-dominated environment, the opposite is true. The latter is less aggressive, and a woman’s style is less aggressive. They both use the same communication style to convey their ideas in a collaborative environment.
7. Are Women Better Communicators than Men?
Several studies conducted in the last 30 years have consistently found that women communicate better than men. Some show that women use far more words than males (ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 words per day compared to 5,000 to 10,000 for men). They also claim that, on average, women’s capacity to listen with empathy is superior to men’s, with females being more likely to wait for men to finish their sentences, not interrupt as frequently in general, and better rephrase and summarize what has been said, as appropriate.
Modern neuroscience and research in infants and teenagers, in particular, tend to support these overall findings, with girls becoming far chattier than boys between the ages of three and sixteen. In addition, females’ vocabulary is more complicated and sophisticated than boys’ (a gap that never closes, it seems). In comparison to women, boys appear to catch up and talk more between the ages of 16 and 18 before becoming progressively shy after 21. On the other hand, girls and young women are not only more skilled talkers but also develop more in the field of listening as they grow older, with greater focus and concentration.
Many people trace the origins of contemporary humans, particularly our hunter-gatherer ancestors when considering the causes for this ostensibly huge communication skill disparity. They claim that most men were cast in the role of the quiet hunter, only communicating when necessary to avoid disturbing potential prey. At the same time, women were left behind to care for a family and build relationships, with the men clearly saying little and the women doing the majority of the communication. This acquired behavior is ingrained in our DNA. It carries over into modern society and the workplace, where speaking is, at its most basic level, a short and purposeful (and largely one-way) signaling exercise for males and a lengthier, more general, and two-way meaning exchange for females.
Conclusion
Research shows that women and men use different nonverbal communication styles. While men are more likely to make a statement and ask for confirmation, women are more likely to give indirect responses that emphasize crucial details. If the same person makes a negative comment about a woman, they are more likely to dismiss the response. Women generally use a more empathetic approach, while men are direct and blunt.