Communication difference between men and women - Essay Example

A person’s particular upbringing, environment, ethnicity and personality type affect the way they communicate. A person’s communication style will be tempered by the gender expectations placed on them from within and by others and by the environment in which they find themselves, whether it is business or more informal. Examining the communication patterns of men and women in both of these scenarios reveals that there is indeed a distinct different between male and female communication primarily due to cultural gender expectations which is important to understand in order to be a good communicator.

Persons of any race, personality, background or gender utilize an assortment of speech and conversational skills in an attempt to communicate appropriately in a specific situation. Generally speaking, a talkative person is seen as controlling and domineering. In the workplace, these personality types are more likely to be looked to as leaders, but they only keep this reputation is they have other leadership qualities like intelligence and strong problem solving skills. In most cases, these individuals are well-liked and respected … if they are male.

For a talkative, intelligent and well-organized woman to be well-liked, respected and seen as a leader, she must also display more stereotypically feminine behavior. She has to adopt more feminine forms of communication, take a nurturing attitude toward those around her and demonstrate herself to be warm-hearted if she wants to gain the same respect as her male equal. However, she may still not be seen as a leader. The reason for this is possibly because leaders must be understood to be competent, trustworthy and intelligent, traits that are strongly linked to a person’s communication patterns.

All of these ideas of a leader are conveyed by the ‘powerful language’ that is