Gender, Role, and Power: A Content Analysis of Speech

Abstract

It seems possible that gender differences may often be reducible to differences in role. The authors sought to explore the effects of role and gender on hostile and anxious communications. Role was manipulated through the use of the Melian Dialogues, a technique borrowed from community organization training that asks participants alternately to assume roles of superior and inferior power. Fourteen groups of college students, each with a four-member team of women and a four-member team of men, engaged in the Dialogues. Their communications, recorded and transcribed verbatim, were coded according to the Gottschalk-Gleser method of content analysis. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that while role had a highly significant effect (p < .0001) on the content of the communications, neither gender nor the order in which roles were assumed exerted a significant influence. Results were interpreted as a consequence of role justification.

Gender versus Power as a Predictor of Negotiation Behavior and Outcomes

“…Nevertheless, each involved some kind of situation in which the parties had conflicting needs and desires and attempted to influence their own and their partner's outcomes. Dovidio et al, 1988Kravitz and Iwaniszek, 1984Molto, 1986Putnam and Jones, 1982Scudder, 1988Siderits et at., 1985 State and Stake, 1979 watson and Hoffman, 1992 In four of the eight studies examined, power emerged as the main explanatory variable. In one of these, gender emerged as a key explanatory variable as well.…”

“…Among those studies in which power was the main explanatory factor (Dovidio, Ellyson, Keating, Heltman, and Brown 1988;Putnam and Jones 1982;Siderits, Johannsen, and Fadden 1985;Watson and Hoffman 1992), some supported the explanation as stated (i.e., that power breeds competitiveness and personally favorable outcomes), but others showed contradictory results, particularly with respect to the tactics employed by powerful parties. Among the expected results, power led to such behavior as: greater visual dominance; more expressions of overt hostility toward one's opponents; greater feelings of competitiveness, power, and control; greater expectations of cooperation from one's opponents; greater satisfaction with the outcome of negotiation; and a stronger belief that one had been successful.…”

Language Style and Gender Stereotypes in Person Perception

“…Eakins and Eakins' (1978) data supported her distinctions, whereas other studies show less male-female differentiation (e.g., Frank, 1978;McConnell-Ginet, 1978;Thorne, Kramarae, & Henley, 1983). Examinations of speech in natural settings have suggested that other social variables often correlated with gender, such as social role or the power held by the speaker, are also important as a sociolinguistic determinant (Crosby & Nyquist, 1977;O'Barr & Atkins, 1980;Siderits, Johannsen, & Fadden, 1985).…”