Gender Theory/Mars and Venus Flashcards
Who wrote Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and when (decade)?
John Gray in 1990s
Otto Jespersen wrote what book and when?
The Woman in the 1920s
Otto Jespersen claimed that:
- women are overly emotional
- women use smaller vocabularies
- women use more conjunctions (and), unlike men who use subordinate clauses
- women use fewer abstract terms
- women are less coarse in language
‘kros’
angry - used by women as a monologue who publicly complains about another’s behaviour using abusive terms
‘hed’
wilful + headstrong - meant for women - uncooperative
‘save’
knowledge, judgement + good sense - supressed by men to avoid provoking conflict
Significance of Don Kulick’s study
contrasts to universal studies in western language
Don Kulick’s study was in… (place and decade)
Gapun, Papa New Guinea 1990s
Define meta-analysis and who used it
- collating more data samples and studies instead of using only one or two studies to create a generalisation and universal data
- Janet Hyde
Janet Hyde’s research article name is…
The Gender Similarities Hypothesis
What was Janet Hyde’s conclusion?
78% of the gender differences were small or close to zero
Which two other linguists agree with Janet Hyde and came to similar conclusions as her?
Chambers and Liberman
What criticism does Deborah Cameron make before releasing data especially in the pre-1990s?
- taking things out of context such as: age, occupation, social class
- subjects were dominantly white, middle class + well-educated men
- not including other cultures
The name of Robin Lakoff’s book:
Language and Woman’s Place
What does Lakoff focus on?
tag questions
What 2 reasons does Lakoff give as to why women use a higher frequency of tag questions?
- for confirmation - used by men too
- to seek approval - used mostly by women
Which two other linguists challenged Lakoff?
Holmes and O’Leary
What conclusion did Holmes arrive to?
tag questions served a facilitative purpose - inviting more people into the conversation
What conclusion did O’Leary arrive to?
gender isn’t the only factor when it comes to using tag questions - occupation is more significant through his study where teachers and doctors (people of power and a higher status in terms of occupation) used tag questions more frequently
Pamela Fishman study name is…
Interactional Shitwork
Fishman’s study concluded that women use a much higher frequency of?
all questions as men do not see it as their responsibility to initiate conversations
Goodwin’s study name and when:
The Secret Life of Girls in 2006
The Secret Life of Girls focus group was..
a socially and ethnically mixed group in LA
Goodwin’s findings/conclusion:
- girls challenged each other directly
- argued over rules of games such as hopscotch
- boasted about their athletic skills, possessions and family status
Deborah Tannen’s approach with which linguist who coined..
cross-cultural approach with Gumperz who coined ‘cross-talk’
Define cross-cultural approach
male and female groups likened to different cultures
Robin Dunbar’s study and focus:
Exchanging social information on gossip
3 linguists related to minimal responses
Maltz and Borker
Helen Reid Thomas
Maltz and Borker studied… and said that…
- minimal responses as having different meanings for each gender
- women = listening
- men = agreeing
Helen Reid Thomas studied… to oppose… and…
- minimal responses
- Maltz and Borker
What did Helen Reid Thomas do that… and… didn’t do?
- carried out systematic tests
- unlike Maltz and Borker
Helen Reid Thomas’ conclusion
there was no difference in the interpretation of each gender instead it is the context which tells people how to interpret minimal responses
What did Gumperz do?
he coined ‘cross-talk’
Gumperz study
- Heathrow ‘gravy’ incident
- a group of Indian and Pakistani women working as cafeteria employees VS British baggage handlers
- British complained that the women were rude
- Asians have a falling intonation when asking if the workers wanted ‘gravy’
- Western have a rising intonation
The link between the ‘difference theory’ and Gumperz’ study
Tannen represents male and female genders as being two separate cultures
Deborah Tannen’s book
You just don’t understand
Deborah Tannen’s theory
Difference theory
Difference theory is by
Deborah Tannen
6 categories in the ‘difference theory’
- status v support
- information v feelings
- orders v proposals
- conflict v compromise
- independence v intimacy
- advice v understanding
monologue in Gapun
kros
women’s characterstic in Gapun
hed
men’s characteristic in Gapun
save
status v support
men = conversations are used to build status
advice v understanding
- women = seek comfort and sympathy
- men = seek solutions to problems
information v feelings
- women = convo important to build relationships and strengthening social skills
- men = convo is message-orientated
orders v proposals
- women = use of super-polite forms (would you mind if…?)
- men use direct imperatives (close the door)
conflict v compromise
- women = avoid conflict in language w out any direct confrontation to maintain positive connections and rapport
- men = use confrontation to resolve differences and thereby negotiating status
independence v intimacy
- women = view the world as a network of connections and relationships, avoiding the appearance of superiority
- men = focuses on status and independence
John Gray wrote what and when
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus in 1990s
Deborah Cameron wrote what and when
The Myth of Mars and Venus in 1990s
