About Gender and Communication

        Deborah Tannen, Anne Moir, and others have researched how typical "male brains" and "female brains" interact with the world. Brain genders may differ from the person's body gender.

Typical male brains prefer...

  things, power, rank, and status

  facts, reason, rules, and logic

  competing, achieving, and winning

  analyzing and figuring out

  assertion and aggression

  intellectual understanding

  sex (intercourse / orgasm)

  companionship and doing

  organizing and achieving

Typical female brains prefer...

  people and relationships

  feelings, senses, and meaning

  harmony, relating, and sharing

  intuiting and "knowing"

  co-operation and mutuality

  empathizing

  love and intimacy

  closeness and being

  personal and social dynamics

These priority differences can promote communication conflicts or effective problem solving. Awareness of these differences and metatalking about them can raise your communication effectiveness! See Project 2 in this site.

slides  /  more detail  /  Project 2 index and guidebook  /  Q&A  /  close