Do men and women speak in the same way?

A new book by language professor Deborah Cameron reveals some interesting facts about how men and women speak.

In recent years, many books and articles have claimed that men and women communicate differently because their brains are different: the female brain is particularly good at verbal communication, whereas the male brain is better at mathematical tasks. Some of the claims that have been made are that women talk more than men; women are better at verbal skills than men; women talk to make connections with people whereas men talk to get things done; and both men and women misunderstand each other.

However, Deborah Cameron points out that these beliefs are not entirely true. She also points out that they have negative effects on men and women. For example, call centres tend to hire women rather than men, because women are considered better at communicating and building rapport. The discrimination works the other way too: women are assumed to be better in jobs where verbal skills are important, but often these jobs are lower paid and less varied than jobs more suitable for "male brains".

Are there any differences in how women and men speak?

In 2005, an article found that there was very little gender difference in how people speak. Other research shows that men tend to speak more than women, often because in public contexts, men have a higher social status than women, and higher status speakers tend to talk more than lower status speakers. But in informal situations, where status is not relevant, women and men are found to contribute equally to the conversation.