Gender and Modes of Communication

Power Resources that can be employed in influencing others (see Lips, 56-74)

Source-dependent resources (located in or attributed to the influencer)

• Reward Power—perceived ability of influencer to reward target person
• Coercive Power—perceived ability of influencer to punish target person for non- compliance
• Legitimate Power—influence attempt justified by some code of behavior or values accepted by both influencer and target person
• Referent Power—based on role modeling, on target person’s liking for or identification with influencer
• Expert Power—based on recognized and credentialed knowledge or expertise of influencer

Source-independent resources (not necessarily located in influencer)

• Informational Power—based on content of influence message (persuasive, rational, well supported) rather than the influencer

Influence Strategies: methods and manner of employing power resources in influence attempts; various combinations of these are possible

• Direct (open: no effort to disguise influence attempt) vs. Indirect (hidden: effort to influence without being noticed)
• Competence (influence attempt based on strength) vs. Helplessness (influence attempt based on weakness)
• Concrete (uses resources that are fairly independent of particular relationships: money, knowledge, strength) vs. Personal (uses resources that are dependent on specific relationships: liking, love, approval)
• Unilateral (requires no interaction between influencer and target person) vs. Bilateral (requires engagement and interaction between influencer and target person)

Gender Theories

• Power Resources: men may hold any or all of the resources; women may as well, but they are less likely to be perceived as holding legitimate power (except in certain family roles), expert power, or concrete reward and coercive power (though they may be seen as holding a great deal of personal reward and coercive power)
• Influence Strategies: men are perceived as using more direct, competent, and concrete strategies; women, as using more indirect, helpless, and personal strategies. However, in terms of studies of actual (as opposed to expected or perceived) strategies, a great deal depends on situational factors, especially the perceived legitimacy of the attempt (the more legitimate, the more direct and strong the tactics) and the sex of the target person (people of either sex tended to use indirect and weak influence strategies on males more often than on females).

Effects of Influence Strategies on Influencers: those who successfully employ direct, competent and concrete strategies tend to gain in self-esteem, satisfaction, and public status; those who habitually employ indirect, helpless, and personal strategies risk

• Loss of self-esteem and the good opinion of others (influencer tends to feel and appear incompetent)
• Insecurity about future power resources (personal resources effective only in certain relationships, which can change)
• Stereotyping as manipulators and loss of trust (since indirect, helpless, personal strategies used by women work less well on other women and breed mistrust)

Sex as a Master Status: (see Lips, 93-114). Status can be

• Achieved: based on the status of the role one performs and how well one performs it
• Ascribed: status automatically attributed to a person based on characteristics such as sex, race, age, appearance, etc.; this concept correlates with the concept of collective power
  • In our culture, males, particularly white males, have a high ascribed status and females have a lower ascribed status. The high ascribed status of males can outweigh many other status and power factors, including high achieved status and high-dominant personality traits in a woman.
  • Recognized expertise can help to counterbalance the initial ascribed status differences based on sex: a number of studies of leadership dynamics suggest that “to offset the power disadvantage experienced by females because of their automatic low status, women had to be made to appear more competent than men in order to attain the same level of influence” (Lips 102).

Nonverbal Communication Patterns: (see Lips, 110-13)

Locations from which nonverbals originate:

• Voice: in our culture there are perceptions/expectations that
  • women will have higher pitch, less resonance, more varied intonations, and a generally softer voice; in mixed groups, they will talk less and let themselves be interrupted
  • men will have lower pitch, more resonance, less varied intonations, (more monotone tendencies) and a generally louder voice; in mixed groups, they will talk more and interrupt speakers frequently, particularly female speakers
• Face: in our culture there are perceptions/expectations that
  • women will generally employ more facial signals of submission—they will be more expressive facially (smile more frequently, also cry or look hurt more frequently), maintain eye contact with speakers or listeners for longer times, avert their eyes sooner when passing people
  • men will generally employ more facial signals of dominance—they will be less expressive facially (smile less frequently and tend to control their expressions and look impassive), maintain less eye contact with speakers or listeners (look away or visually ignore them), stare when passing people
• Body: in our culture there are perceptions/expectations that
  • women will yield space more easily; they will maintain an enclosed appearance, with arms folded or legs crossed or both close to the body, hands closed, and head tilted; their clothes will be more brightly colored and decorative (including accessories such as jewelry); they will use touch to indicate closeness and affection (e.g., reciprocal touch such as hugs)
  • men will more often exert control over space; they will maintain an open, expansive appearance, with arms and legs stretched out away from the body, hands open, and head straight; their clothes will be more uniform, less brightly colored and decorative (and they will employ fewer accessories such as jewelry); they will use touch to reinforce status differences (i.e., nonreciprocal touch such as slaps on the back)
• Environment: in our culture there are perceptions/expectations that
  • women will claim limited personal space and use color and objects to convey mood
  • men will claim large amounts of personal space and use color and objects to show power

Functions of nonverbals: reinforcement, qualification, replacement, or contradiction of the verbal part of a message

Meanings of nonverbals:

• Agency (related to tasks and accomplishments; stereotypically associated with men) vs. Communion (related to establishing connections with other people; stereotypically associated with women)
• Dominance (need to lead or control an interaction; stereotypically associated with men) vs. Liking (desire for a friendly interaction; stereotypically associated with women) vs. Responsiveness (degree of energy or involvement invested in an interaction; stereotypically associated with women)

Nonverbal cues associated with males tend to be signals of dominance, while those associated with females tend to be signals of submission