Gender Differences in Communications

9 Pages 2245 Words

discuss cross-gender conversational styles. Lastly, this paper will touch on gender communication in a different environment; cyberspace.
Society may wonder why it needs to know about gender communication, and the response is simple. Gender communication is many things but this paper will focus on four basic reasons. According to Ivy and Backlund, gender communication is provocative, pervasive, problematic, and unpredictable (1994). This paper will briefly describe the four basic reasons mentioned to better understand gender communication.
The first reason is that gender communication is provocative (Ivy and Backlund, 1994). Both sexes are interested in how each is perceived how they communicate with others, and how other human beings respond to us. Humans are especially interested in communication with the opposite sex for several reasons; the main reason is we cannot experience the opposite sex firsthand. They are also interested in the possible rewards that may come from successful gender communication.
Gender communication is also pervasive; meaning that interaction with both sexes occurs frequently, everyday, and every hour (Ivy and Backlund, 19914). Interest in the effects of the gender communication process is at a high value due to the sheer number of contacts that occur between the sexes every-single day. When the contacts affect us in profound ways, the importance of these relationships and the pervasiveness of our interactions with significant people make it necessary to have a better understanding of gender communication.
Thirdly, gender communication can be problematic (Ivy and Backlund, 1994). Communication in all forms can be problematic, but when gender is added the communication process, the complexity is expanded because now there is more than one way of looking at or talking about something. Lastly, gender communication is unpredictable (Ivy and Backlund, 1994).
Tannen (1992) states that although men and women in...