What is Gender Communication?

It is evident today, that communication between women and men is a popular topic of conversation, and certainly something that occurs and impacts people on a daily basis. But when we talk about and learn to understand what gender communication is; its occurrence and how to recognize its impact in society could be tricky. It’s important to note that not all types of communication between members of the same sex or difference sex is gender communication. According to Ivy, gender communication is communication about and between men and women (Ivy, 2012).  Ivy describes the “about” aspect as the way in which the sexes are discussed, referred to, or depicted, both verbally and nonverbally (Ivy, 2012). The between aspect is the interpersonal dimension of gender communication (Ivy, 2012). The main point here is the awareness of one’s own sex, compared to those of the people of which you are communicating with. As Ivy says, “when you become conscious of your own or another person’s sex or gender, then gender communication is operating” (Ivy, 2012). We can gather from this definition that communication becomes gendered when sex or gender overtly begin to dominate and influence the conversation. This could affect your choices of what you say, how you feel, or how you act.

How do you communicate with the opposite sex?

The mere notion that gender communication affects the way people interact based on their sex and identified gender is the basis of what our research team tried to understand as we asked various college students the question: “Can men and women just be friends”. The following posts on this blog are reflections from our research team that sought to find an answer to this question. We did this by interviewing over 20 college students on their opinions, experience, and what they personally believe.

Source:

Ivy, D. (2012). Gender Speak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication. Fifth Edition.    Boston,  MA: Pearson Press.