Amelie Cameron
Evaluate the idea that men and women speak differently.
In history, there has always been this idea in society that men and women speak differently.
However, there have been many studies that have been conducted which have evidence to show
that there aren’t inherent differences between the way men and women speak, and that any
differences we may have are through socialisation or context.
One of the earliest theories that support the idea that gender affects language use is by Robin
Lakoff. This is known as the deficit theory. This theory suggests that women are deficient in the
way that they speak, due to a lack of confidence. Lakoff states that women do a lot more back
channelling, such as saying ‘uh huh’ when listening to someone speak to show that they are
listening. Lakoff also says that women hedge more, and speak more indirectly, again due to a lack of
confidence. An example of women speaking indirectly is by using tag questions, such as “It’s quite
cold, isn’t it.” According to Lakoff this shows that women are deficient in language as where
women supposedly tend to use indirect terms, a man would simply shut the window if it was cold.
However, there was another study done by Janet Holmes. The conclusion of this study showed
that men used tag questions as well as women. Therefore, from the results of this study, we can say
that gender is not necessarily what is affecting our language and the way that we speak.
There is another theory that suggests that gender affects language use. This theory is Dale Spender’s
dominance theory, which suggests that men dominate language as a whole, which reflects a
patriarchal society in which men stand dominant. In her theory, she used a study done by
Zimmerman and West. This study concluded that men interrupt women 96% of the time.
However a later study was conducted by Geoff Beattie, who concluded that the margin of
interruptions between men and women was very slim, too small to be commented on. He also said
that the results were relative, as one loud, rude person could easily sway the results. Overall, this
suggests the language may be affected by personality, rather than by gender.
Despite the evidence to suggest that our language is based on other factors such as personality,
Deborah Tannen’s difference theory states that in actual fact, gender is vitally important to the way
that we speak. She believes that men and women have a fundamentally different way of speaking.
However, her reasoning for this is due to the way that women and men are socialised. Different
social factors such as television or parents affect girls and boys growing up, and that girls are taught
to speak more gently, whereas boys are taught to be more strong and aggressive.
