abstract

GENDER AND COMMUNICATION STYLES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

(C)Tami Sutcliffe, 1998
Abstract:

Certain human communication traits have historically been identified as gender-specific. The purpose of this paper is to collect and compare the most widely-indexed, gender-specific World Wide Web sites from five given interest areas, and to then determine which, if any, traditionally gender-based communication patterns were present within these sites.

Using qualitative and quantitative analysis, this study found that in many cases:
    Female-oriented sites in this study
  • emphasized communality
  • stressed sharing personal experience
  • resisted authoritative language
  • encouraged emotional interaction
Male-oriented sites in this study
  • relied on authoritative language
  • emphasized privacy
  • stressed professionalism
  • minimized personal interaction.
    • Although these sites represent only a miniscule "snap shot" of communication on the Web, they seemed to suggest that the core of traditionally identified gender-specific communication traits is being actively transplanted into Cyberspace.

    "If modern technology has characteristics which are abhorrent to us, then realizing that technology is socially produced allows us to understand that things need not be as they are." Wendy Faulkner, Smothered By Invention: Technology in Women's Lives.
    Last Updated: March 1999
    Copyright © 1999 Tami Sutcliffe
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