DOMINANCE

MALES tend to dominate females in conversation. They do this through the use of interruptions.

1975 Don Zimmerman and Candace West produced a study and found that throughout 11 mixed-sex conversations, men interrupted 46 times whereas women only interrupted 2 times. They concluded that since men interrupted more they are/are attempting to dominate the women.

Dale Spender said that patriarchal systems make it hard to challenge this power system that has always been there as everything we do or say reinforces this idea of male power.

Lakoff suggests that women asking questions is a sign of their insecurities and weakness in conversation.

However Fishman said that women ask questions because of the power of the question not their personality weaknesses.  Also in mixed-sex conversations men tend to speak for twice the length of women.

Dominance can appear throughout different ranges of communication. It can appear in conversations and also written form. In plays, books and films one character may dominate another but also in articles the writer may hold some form of dominance over the reader.

It has been suggested and is a widely known stereotype that women tend to talk more and men struggle to get a word in edgeways however there has been evidence like Zimmerman, West and Fishman to suggest that when men and women are together men tend to talk the most.

Zoe Williams – the guardian – Thursday 20^th march 2014

Into the be-snaked swamp that is the equal pay debate comes an interesting case from the US. You will recall that women are accused – particularly by a certain type of free-market, the-answer-is-within-you, rabid possessive individualist (Sheryl Sandberg) – of failing to negotiate properly for themselves.

 

With that in mind we turn to New York's Nazareth college, which offered a job to a female academic whom we're calling W. She replied with a set of demands, including an increase in pay. Perhaps I'm already being sexist, calling them demands; maybe if W were a man I would have called them requests. You can read the full text of her demands/requests here.

 

It seems obvious that most salary offers are starting points and it's perfectly natural to ask for more money. Does it sound unenthusiastic to raise a sabbatical and postpone your start date for a year before you've even begun? Possibly. Is there something tragic about having to ask, hypothetically, for one term of maternity leave as part of your opening position, to be negotiated downwards, rather than expect it from a civilised nation as a human right? I think so.

Zoe is aware of the differences between men and women and she is comfortable enough to speak up about it but even she is scared to ask for things that she wants and feels she is entitled to because of the way society is and the dominance that others have over her.