Gender Differences in Communication.

People from all races, backgrounds, and societies, around the world have had two things in common since the beginning of time: the existence of both males and females, and the compulsion to communicate between the two. The subject of gender differences appears to have occupied peoples' interest for as long as people have been putting their thoughts in writing, from as far back as the writing of the creation of Adam and Eve, to its present-day, popular expression in books such as Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. The claim that men and women communicate in different ways, about different things, and for different reasons seems to go un-argued and is accepted as precise by an enormous majority of Americans. The reason why we communicate in our own way is what conjures up quite a bit of debate and conversational mayhem. One of the most long-established hypothesis is the one John Gray wrote about in his book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, which in essence points to differences in brain configuration, hormones, and socialization as the cause of such a massive gender gap in communication.

Communication

Grays and Torreys Peaks

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

But that was a few years ago, since then recent studies have shown that women use both sides of their brain when they listen, whereas men only use the left side. The left side of the brain is the side that is associated with understanding language. Other studies have suggested that women "can handle listening to two conversations at once," As Dr. Joseph T. Lurito, an assistant radiology professor at Indiana University School of Medicine suggest it may be because women have more brain devoted to listening.

Deborah Tannen, a leading scholar of communication, asserts that the basic uses of conversation by women are to establish and...