Introduction
Masculine and feminine socialization has been in existence across cultures, shaping the way in which men and women communicate. Ranging from the choice of words to gestures to communication strategies, the specified differences affect how people talk to one another (Hora et al., 2021). An observation of a friend’s communication patterns has revealed that gender stereotypes and the resulting specifics of upbringing shape how people converse, defining their verbal and nonverbal language specifics.
Discussion
The communication quality and patterns that the friend demonstrated while talking to her fellow students mostly aligned with cultural expectations and gender norms placed on her due to her sex. Specifically, she demonstrated politeness and refrained from speaking over other people, which would be the exact gender norm. Additionally, she showed exceptional listening skills, using nonverbal communication actively to encourage others to speak, which was facilitated by the presence of gender expectations defined by the local culture. The specified communication characteristics, while being overall positive, are typically expected of women and seen as the result of female socialization, whereas male communication patterns are supposed to be more assertive and domineering (Löffler & Greitemeyer, 2021). Admittedly, challenging and expanding the gender norm would have made others feel uneasy due to the prevalence of strong gendered expectations among the participants as a direct result of the prominently conservative perspectives within the community.
After observing my friend talking to others, I came to the conclusion that gender socialization shapes substantially how men and women approach communication. Specifically, a brief analysis of the collected information has demonstrated that men develop a strong propensity toward leading the conversation, whereas women tend to inject verbal and nonverbal elements that communicate agreeableness. The specified insights suggest that gender speech patterns develop at a fairly early stage and are quite difficult to unlearn. Furthermore, rigid expectations for men and women across cultures prevent these stereotypes from being eradicated.
Conclusion
Therefore, focusing on building a gender-free environment where people can explore their individual characteristics without being constrained by gender norms should be the core goal.
References
Hora, S., Lemoine, G. J., Xu, N., & Shalley, C. E. (2021). Unlocking and closing the gender gap in creative performance: A multilevel model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(3), 297–312. Web.
Löffler, C. S., & Greitemeyer, T. (2021). Are women the more empathetic gender? The effects of gender role expectations. Current Psychology, 42(1), 220–231. Web.