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Subject:Re: Kate and the "class conflict" discussion From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 29 Apr 1993 08:12:09 PDT
Focus on 3 things: Quality, Quality, Quality said:
> communication. In general, I found that during a BUSINESS MEETING
> the women did NOT tend to have the same conversational habits that
> they have during social interactions (you'll note that most of Tannen's
> research was based on social conversstaions, like at dinner or
> parties). For example, during the draft review meetings, if a man
> interupted, the woman interrupted right back and held her ground.
Also, note that Tannen explicitly and repeatedly states in her popular
books that these are not necessarily male or female behaviours, that
these are human patterns of interaction. One behaviour is a response
to the other.
As to not having the same conversation habits at work and in purely
social situations--did you do the observations of both situations yourself?
It sounds like you are generalizing about women in social situations from
Tannen's work, and I believe may lead to inaccuracies in your own results.