Over the course of my college career, I have taken an assortment of communication courses ranging from Philosophy of Communication to Law and Ethics of Mass Communication. With that said, Communication and Gender was by far the most interesting. Perhaps it was the passion for the subject exhibited by the professor, or maybe it was the open-discussion environment. It’s hard to think of one single aspect of the course that was most appealing to me, but I genuinely feel the Gender and Communication course contributed significantly to broadening my intellectual capabilities.
“Gender communication is communication about and between men and women” (Ivy & Backland, 2008, p. 25). This subject is fresh in my mind because I have spent countless hours studying for the final exam that will begin at 12:30 p.m. today, but the interesting thing is that studying for this exam was not a complete and total drag like most of the final exam study sessions are. Reading through the text book is somewhat gratifying because the book is well written in my opinion. It is conversational to a certain extent, and the book never left me drowsy like some of my previous textbooks.
Women and men are virtually the same biologically aside from a different chromosome. However, women and men are much more different than I ever could have imagined. For instance, men strive for independence through communication while women strive for intimacy (Tannen, 1991). Men tend to view the world in a hierarchical social order in which they are in either “one-up” or “one-down” positions, and women view the world through a network of connections (Tannen, 1991). Conversations for women are negotiations for closeness in which people attempt to seek and give confirmation and support to reach consensus; contrastingly, conversations for men are focused on establishing status (Tannen, 1991).
An interesting point is that men, for the most part, engage in report talk. Women, for the most part, tend to engage in rapport talk (Tannen, 1991). According to Debroah Tannen’s book You Just Don’t Understand, womens’ conversations emphasize similar and matching experiences, while men’s conversations focus on preserving independence and exhibiting skill by holding center stage (Tannen, 1991). Another interesting subject is how men and women view conflict. Women view conflict as a threat to connection, and they are more likely to avoid conflict and to consult a third person instead of confronting the one person directly (Tannen, 1991). Men, on the other hand, do not shy away from conflict; moreover, it can sometimes be the start of a friendship.
Communication and Gender is a course that I would recommend for any student interested in communications. I genuinely feel this course has helped me to better understand the differences between females and males, and I will take everything I have learned and apply it in the professional world. Taking this course was truly a pleasure, and I am thankful for my passionate and thoughtful professor.
