Oh, I don't deny that. I think what I'm saying is that I'm not sure
how constructive it is to frame it in those terms. In my own
experience, this only seems to get people more entrenched rather than
enlightened. Most people are really loathe to be seen as un-masculine
or un-feminine, so if you point to some study that shows there are
differences, people will tend to cling to those behaviors as if doing
otherwise would betray their gender.
President Obama alluded to this same problem when he spoke about how
many black kids in poor areas will put down a friend who reads books for
"acting white." I'm sure you could point to statistics that show fewer
black kids than white kids read books regularly, but obviously,
correlation doesn't equal causation, and this doesn't mean that reading
books is or should be something that's associated with "being white."
Likewise I think the implication that "women are better at communicating
than men," among other things, is self perpetuating.
On 8/20/2010 2:29 PM, LBUZZELL@aol.com wrote:
Thanks, Lee. There has been quite a bit of research on "average"
differences in conversation styles in women and men