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Differences in Gender Communication Sentence Outline

Angela D. Deese

Krystal Burt

Michelle Curlee

Teresa Horn

Carrie Buckley

Human Communication Theory

November 29, 2009

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Differences In Gender Communication

I. Introduction.

a. After researching the differences in gender communication, it has been

discovered that although there are many similarities there are also subtle and

distinct differences

b. First we much define Gender, Gender should be defined as “the way

societies mold men and women in their early years, creating male and

female personalities and even male and female subcultures.” (Epstein, 1986,

p. 28) Biological sex would be defined as physically male vs. female. There

are people that may be female that display the male gender traits in non

verbal communication and vice versa.

II. The differences in Gender Communication begin at birth and continues though

childhood into adulthood. Our society has placed labels and the female and male

gender which contributes to the differences.

a. Daughters are raised to be like their mothers and show more emotion and

communication.

i. Girls will communicate with others when trying to complete a task

as simple as a puzzle during childhood. (Thompson, 1999)

b. Sons are raised to model their fathers as the more macho gender.
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i. Boys take the "I can do it myself" attitude when given the same

puzzle as the girls. They waited for time to run down before

communicating they needed help. (Thompson, 1999)

ii. Thinking back to childhood, how many times do little boys look to

their father’s and mimic them until they have achieved the ultimate

goal of being just like them.

III. The gender traits we acquire as children follow individuals into all aspects of

adulthood.

a. The non-verbal communication of the female gender directly relates to

societies thinking on women.

i. Women tend to hold eye contact longer then men. This is said to be

because a subordinate person should always look at the dominate

individual. In our history women were the subordinate gender.

ii. Women are more likely to smile at individuals then men. Women

tend to hold eye contact longer then men.

a. In a gesture to show openness, when looking at her fingers a woman looks at

them with palms down with open hands. (Payne, 2001, p. 131-135)

b. In the past at the work place, women were taking key managerial position

and had to prove she was worthy of her promotion more so then men.

c. In verbal communication women tend to speak and communicate more then

the male gender.

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i. If you think to phone conversations, it is normally the women talking

and the men listening. This is communicating, but it is a lot more

passive.

d. In today’s world the internet shows the same kind or communication for

women. The basics of the search showed that women used the internet

mainly for communication purposes, such as email and chatting. (Jackson,

Ervin, Gardner, & Schmitt, 2001)

e. As with women, non-verbal communication for men is related to the

stereotype our societys has created for the male gender.

i. Men require more distance, personal space, between them when

communicating.

ii. Men close their hands and turn them up, a gesture to hide emotion,

where women look at there fingers palms down with open hands.

(Payne, 2001, p. 131-135)

f. Opposite with women, en were considered to be more aggressive and had

more insight in the workplace.

g. Men use the internet for informational purposes, such as researching. It is

not a key point of communication and bonding as it is for women. (Jackson,

Ervin, Gardner, & Schmitt, 2001)

IV. Conclusion

a. We have shown that the male and female genders have different

communicating styles that can be followed from childhood into adulthood.

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b. Over the years we have seen this gap between genders shrink as the

stereotype of the gender roles is slowly diminishing.