Differences That Make a Difference

Describes how women and men differ on a range of communication variables and speculates on how differences can be recognized as resources rather than liabilities.

Joining the debate on gender differences, this book presents a cross-section of current research in communication, language, and gender studies. Examining what researchers mean by gender differences and values implicit in the term is critical to understanding current trends in gender studies.

Joining the debate on gender differences, this book presents a cross-section of current research in communication, language, and gender studies. The first part presents studies that ask how women and men differ on a range of communication variables and suggest reasons for these differences. The second part offers a variety of critiques of masculine cultural hegemony. The third part envisions how gender differences may be reconceptualized in order to open key cultural institutions to honor both women and men. Taken as a whole, the chapters inform one another in a creative, dialectical tension. Examining what researchers mean by gender differences and values implicit in the term is critical to understanding current trends in gender studies.