Gender and Communication: Miscommunication between men and women

Miscommunication between men and women during conversation is unfortunately very common, as their rules for a friendly conversation differ significantly. From childhood, boys and girls learn to interact with one another in different ways. This learning essentially begins in the playground. Girls' talk as a way to establish and sustain a close relationship with their peers, whereas boys' use it to affirm a position of power. Girls' learn to criticize each other tactfully as not …

…been taught to speak in a different ways. The ways they apply this learning as adults contributes to miscommunication and misunderstanding between genders. For example, REFERENCES: 1. Julia T. Wood, 2001, 'Gendered Interaction: Masculine and Feminine Styles of Verbal Communication' in Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender and Culture, 4th edition, Belmont, C.A. Wordsworth Thomson Learning 2. Maltz, D. and Borker, R., 1982, 'A Cultural Approach to male-female Communication', in Grumperz, J. Language and Social Identity, Cambridge University Press, London