Opinion Article- Language And Gender
Is the truth 'hyde-ing' in plain sight?
Language gender theories have been coming increasingly relevant over the last 3 decades but is there any clarity over why there is such a gaping difference in how the males and females of society communicate with one another.
A recent study into FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) found that only 22 out of 100 of the businesses had a female executive, this was the highest its been since 2015. Making only just over a fifth of the total, it begs the question : Why are there so little women in these types of position?
Deborah Tannen, a well known theorist, published a report, titled 'You Just Don't Understand' (1990)which discussed how men and women use the same language in their conversations but with different goals. For example, one of Tannen's points was this idea of 'status vs. support' which discusses how men were shown to use language as a means of asserting dominance but saying women used language in conversations to show support in ideas. We can use this theory to explain the trends we see with men being the clear majority in the top tier of professions where dominance and control are paramount, highlighted by the FTSE statistics. Tannen believed these differences are a result of how different boys and girls are treated like at childhood and leads them to join different sub-cultures of society where they learn how they are expected to act. This also links to the theorists Zimmerman & West who published a report in 1975 which concluded in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women, after studying 11 conversations between men and women with men interrupting 23 times more.With my experience, I recognise this idea that men are more dominant in a conversation and do make it a priority and this could be a decisive factor as to why there is such a lack of representation for women in these job roles. However, both Tannen and Zimmerman & West reports are over 15 and 40 years old respectively, this needs to be taken into account as it may mean these theories are quite outdated and there may be other factors that need to be taken into account which we shall look at in due course.
Another hypothesis that was made on why males are so
dominant in these types of environments was made by
Pamela Fishman (1982),who stated women are more likely
to use tag questions than men to start a conversation and to
continue dialogue, this can explain why men are shown to thrive
in these professions and women are overlooked. a similar issue that
can be identified by the use of this report is the validity as this
hypothesis is not based on any actual evidence so this must be taken
into account when considering this theory.
Not all language gender theorists believe there is a divide in male and female language, in Janet Hyde's 'Dynamic approach' (2005), Hyde discussed how the differences that are clearly evident in society are not down to the sub-cultures that are made when were younger but are due to other variables such as class,age,ethnicity,education etc. I believe this is also a reasonable hypothesis as we see a trend in how people of a higher class have a better chance of achieving a high role in a top profession, this theory could explain why there are fewer women executives in top companies and thus, disregards claims made by the likes of Tannen and Zimmerman & West. After looking at these theories, it is difficult to draw upon a hypothesis as many factors need to be taken into account and context needs to be in consideration when studying such statistics as employment statistics.
Language gender theories have been coming increasingly relevant over the last 3 decades but is there any clarity over why there is such a gaping difference in how the males and females of society communicate with one another.
A recent study into FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) found that only 22 out of 100 of the businesses had a female executive, this was the highest its been since 2015. Making only just over a fifth of the total, it begs the question : Why are there so little women in these types of position?
Deborah Tannen, a well known theorist, published a report, titled 'You Just Don't Understand' (1990)which discussed how men and women use the same language in their conversations but with different goals. For example, one of Tannen's points was this idea of 'status vs. support' which discusses how men were shown to use language as a means of asserting dominance but saying women used language in conversations to show support in ideas. We can use this theory to explain the trends we see with men being the clear majority in the top tier of professions where dominance and control are paramount, highlighted by the FTSE statistics. Tannen believed these differences are a result of how different boys and girls are treated like at childhood and leads them to join different sub-cultures of society where they learn how they are expected to act. This also links to the theorists Zimmerman & West who published a report in 1975 which concluded in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women, after studying 11 conversations between men and women with men interrupting 23 times more.With my experience, I recognise this idea that men are more dominant in a conversation and do make it a priority and this could be a decisive factor as to why there is such a lack of representation for women in these job roles. However, both Tannen and Zimmerman & West reports are over 15 and 40 years old respectively, this needs to be taken into account as it may mean these theories are quite outdated and there may be other factors that need to be taken into account which we shall look at in due course.
Another hypothesis that was made on why males are so
dominant in these types of environments was made by
Pamela Fishman (1982),who stated women are more likely
to use tag questions than men to start a conversation and to
continue dialogue, this can explain why men are shown to thrive
in these professions and women are overlooked. a similar issue that
can be identified by the use of this report is the validity as this
hypothesis is not based on any actual evidence so this must be taken
into account when considering this theory.
Not all language gender theorists believe there is a divide in male and female language, in Janet Hyde's 'Dynamic approach' (2005), Hyde discussed how the differences that are clearly evident in society are not down to the sub-cultures that are made when were younger but are due to other variables such as class,age,ethnicity,education etc. I believe this is also a reasonable hypothesis as we see a trend in how people of a higher class have a better chance of achieving a high role in a top profession, this theory could explain why there are fewer women executives in top companies and thus, disregards claims made by the likes of Tannen and Zimmerman & West. After looking at these theories, it is difficult to draw upon a hypothesis as many factors need to be taken into account and context needs to be in consideration when studying such statistics as employment statistics.
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