An Excerpt from My OB textbk

Gender differences also create barriers to effective communication. Boys and girls acquire different linguistic styles. Boys as they grow up play in large groupsm emphasize status and leadership, display their knowledge and abilities, challenge others, take 'center stage' by telling jokes/stories and try to acquire status in their group by giving orders to others. Girls focus on small groups of friends, sharing secrets wif their best frens, emphasizing similarities and playing down ways that a person could be better than others. Girls tend to be more modest, appear less self-assured and ostracize those who claim superiority

Men tend to think more in hierarchical terms and are concerned wif power, status and wif being "one-up" and try to maintain this by driving and by interrupting conversations. Men jockey for position by putting others down, appear competent by acting confidently and appear knowledgeable by asking fewer questions. they tend to give negative feedback quickly n look for opportunities to criticize rather than pay pple compliments.

Women are morelikely to avoid putting pple down and to act in ways that are face saving for others. Women can appear to lack self confidence by playing down their certainty and by expressing doubt more openly. they appear less self assured and knowledgeable by asking more qns, tend to soften criticism by offering positive feedback 1st and pay compliments more readily than men do.

Men tend to be more direct and use 'I' more often while women speak indirectly and speak of 'we' when talking abt accomplishments. in summary, men tend to adopt linguistic styles and behave in ways that are more likely to get them recognized, that are more likely to earn them attributions of effectiveness and competence. women who adopt a more "masculine"linguistic style can be seen as too aggressive.