Free English Language Dissertations - Dr. John Gray (author Of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus) Says That
Dr. John Gray (author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) says that women communicate for different reasons than men do. When men talk about problems, they are looking for solutions, whereas when women discuss problems they are sharing their feelings, because they find this therapeutic. In this context what women would like from men is empathy, and not solutions. (http://www.marsvenus.com/articles/listening.php)
The table on the following page shows clear differences in communication styles between men and women.
Men
Women
They try to solve problems and troubles
They try to match troubles by relating similar negative experiences
They have a more analytical approach to problems
They have a more emotional approach to problems
They are less likely to ask for help. They try to figure things out on their own
They are more likely to ask for help and accept it
They are more task-oriented (i.e., "What is everyone going to do?")
They are more maintenance-oriented (i.e., "Is everyone all right?")
They appear less intuitive and less aware of details
They appear more intuitive and more aware of details
They have more difficulty in expressing intimate feelings
They have less difficulty in expressing intimate feelings
They are more apt to yell, shout and swear to release anger
They are more apt to cry to release anger
They talk more about what they did, where they went and less about relationships with others
They talk more about how they feel and more about relationships with others
They tend to take verbal rejection less personally
They tend to take verbal rejection more personally
(Glass, L. (1995) page 49).
English has a natural gender, unlike many other languages. (Of course, it was not always so; before 1154, Old English nouns still used the Anglo-Saxon derived genders. (Bryson, B, 1990, page 49)). This means that words like woman, cow, ewe, are feminine because of their biological sex. In the same way, bull, boy and tomcat are masculine. This natural gender refers only to animals and not to objects. Historically, certain professions acquired genders: doctors, lawyers, politicians, engineers, architects and ministers were invariably male. Nurses, nannies and typists tended to be female. Nowadays, all of these professions are correctly gender-free. There are also words with male endings such as chairman, postman and fireman, which now have alternatives: chairperson, postal worker and fire-fighter.
Below is a table from guidelines for gender-sensitive writing published on the University of North Carolina’s Writing Centre website. It illustrates just how seriously these concerns are treated in many academic institutions.
( www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb) (Last updated 14 October 2005).
Dissertations - Free English Language Dissertations
