The widespread imbalance in the intrests and expectations between the sexes, poses as a communication gap between the two genders. It causes us to have different impressions of social interaction between men and woman. One must understand the other sex in order to come up with a solution.
In Debrah Tannen's essay on "Why Is It So Hard For Men and Women to Talk to Each Other," she tries to inform us of this lack of communication between men and women and the problems that it can cause. The author starts off by giving the reader an example of a situation involving a man and his wife where the husband would comment on how much his wife is the talker in the family and how she is always talking when she is at home. This demonstrates that men generally talk more in public situations, while women tend to talk more at home.
Communication
The Hear After
Hear and NowShe follows up by talking about how most of the women that divorced gave lack of communication as the reason for the divorce while only a few men cited it as a reason. Most wives want their husbands to be, foremost, conversational partners; someone they can share their feelings and opinions with. Many men, however, do not share this expectation with their wives. Given this, the author suggested this is one of the main reasons for the escalating divorce rate in America.
She goes on by comparing the difference in behavior between boys and girls and how they only interact with their own gender. Girls tend to talk much amongst each other, often trading secrets and gossiping. For girls, oral communication is the basis of their relationships. Boys, on the other, hand tend to communicate more physically than orally, by playing sports and doing other things with each...