The Neglect of Woman’s Voice

Due to the deep-rooted discrimination on genders， men and women have been evaluated and treated with different social norms. In this paper an in-depth study is needed to set out on cultural gender discrimination instead of discrimination on gender. According to literature review and some observations， Men and women as two clusters of population appear to have their own cultures， the masculine cultures tend to use more aggressive styles of communication， their problem-solving methods and conflict-management techniques would centre on bottom-line issues， strict coping and debriefing information technique. In contrast， the feminine cultures are probably much more capable of reading non-verbal messages and are better prepared to deal with ambiguity (Dodd， 1998).

There are many reasons why people who speak the same language sometimes fail to understand each other， language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value， and speakers identify themselves and other through their use of language (Claire， 1998). Individuals brought to the intercultural encounter not only their ethnographic categories， world views， values， cultural themes and so forth but essentially their language and its influential power of shaping in the lives of cultural members. Researches have shown that when men and women attempt to interact as equals in friendly cross-sex conversations they do not play the same role in interaction， During a conversation， women display a greater tendency of asking question， being more active， using more posture minimal response， such as “mm， hmm”， adopting a strategy of “silent protest” and using pronounces “you” and “we”. On the other hand， men tend to interrupt the speech， challenge or dispute their partners’ utterances， ignore the comments of the other speakers， use more mechanisms for controlling the topic of conversation and more declarations of the fact or opinion (Hirschman， 1973;Zimmerman and West， 1975; West and Zimmerman， 1977). The outputs of another investigation based on the observation at school boys and girls indicate that girls maintain relationships of closeness and equality， criticize others in acceptable ways and interpret accurately. Boys tend to assist one’s position of dominance， maintain an audience， and assert oneself when other speakers show their opinions (Hirschman， 1973; Zimmerman and West， 1975; West and Zimmerman， 1977). According to studies of sexism in language， men and women， to a great extent， tend to adopt different ways to communicate with other people according to their culture and environment respectively. For example， women tend to perform in a more polite way at most time but more aggressive than men when emergencies happen. However， because the restriction of social environment and the weakness of woman’s inner-self transcendence thought all have deep influence on woman’s struggle on the world stage. Capitalist industrialization brings about other reasons on inequality situation between the labour of women and men as well as a separative location of their activities. Men are more visible and ideologically classified to the public sphere while women are relegated to the domestic sphere. Conversation at home will be perceived as a different genre from talk in public places. Married women are expected to be more responsible for providing emotional support to family members verbally and non-verbally than married men， and mother’s talk to daughters is a unique speaking way.

It seems inevitable that the differences between male and female will be presenting within the context of languages as long as they exist. The two genders’ speaking tends to perform in different ways from their childhood due to different gender cultures behind it. However， the underlying point of this study is to pinpoint the biased attitude that the mass have been holding and to help people realize that being mild does not mean less authority or decisiveness. Because of historical reasons and female’s traits， as they always play the role like housewife， nurse， teacher and so on， they live according to what the society want them to be， but we all know the simple fact that each occupation need to be respected， each job may need both male and female. and each culture should be understood. Women should live and play the role as they wish to instead of following the rules that this unequal society makes. Males should try to understand them rather than to despise them with bias. Females should be more confident through more sobering self-scrutiny and better understanding of male culture. Only minor modifies in female’s speaking can influence so much on human being’s judgments， decisions and behaviors. Equal dialogues between men and women will be a significant development in the history of mankind civilization.

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