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why do women talk so much?

...somehow I don't beleive that women talk more then men. I have a hard time getting a word in edgewise with most men I know... Then again I hate to talk too much becouse I hate to beat a dead horse, heh maybe that's why I have more male frends then female ones... I don't know anymore :D
 
Sidestepping all the sexist landmines and cluster bombs laying around, may I offer the following

Women do talk more often, and use more complex language to put context across. In far distant times, while the men where out hunting and doing whatever you do on the hunt. Women were responisble for holding the tribe together, keeping food organised, planning the day, and perhaps most importantly educating children.

Men on the other hand have a bias to less complex speech and far more non verbal signals. Again on the hunt. Very complex ideas had to be passed around the hunting party while not alerting the intended prey to their presence.

Sure there are exceptions, as people have pointed out. But by and large it is a hard wiring issue rather than gender assignment in society
 
I tried to ask this question of my wife, but I could not get a word in edgewise. So....

:duck:
 
See ya should have read my post

Hand signals -stumps everytime :catfight:
 
I find it disturbing to know that a book used a statistic with so little proof behind it, but mostly that so many sources quoted the book without ever checking the study used. It seems to me like someone should have said "are you sure that's right?" Just using some logic, it would seem very unlikely that women talk 3 times more than men.
 
I think that this might be a reasons women are perceived to talk so much, and this research has been around since 1978:
West and Zimmerman (1987) said:
Many situations are not clearly sex categorized to begin with, nor is what transpires within them obviously gender relevant. Yet any social encounter can be pressed into service in the interests of doing gender. Thus, Fishman's (1978) research on casual conversations found an asymmetrical "division of labor" in talk between heterosexual intimates. Women had to ask more questions, fill more silences, and use more attention-getting beginnings in order to be heard. Her conclusions are particularly pertinent here:
Since interactional work is related to what constitutes being a woman, with what a woman is, the idea that it is work is obscured. The work is not seen as what women do, but as part of what they are. (Fishman 1978, p. 405)​
We would argue that it is precisely such labor that helps to constitute the essential nature of women as women in interactional contexts (West and Zimmerman 1983, pp. 109-11; but see also Kollock, Rlumstein, and Schwartz 1985).
Click to expand...
source
 
acuity said:
Why do men listen so little, despite having much more non-talking time at their disposal?
Click to expand...
I get that from my wife.

As I tell her. I listen intently to what you say. I have immense difficulty comprehending what you mean.
 
Asking "Why do women talk so much?" assumes that the amount of talking men supposedly engage in is the acceptable or normal amount.

Maybe the question should be "Why do men talk so little?"
 
Anecdotally speaking, the #1 complaint I hear from women about men on first dates is when the man talks endlessly about himself. (Of course the real complaint is that the man doesn't pull down enough scratch.)

;)
 
Most professional talkers- talk show hosts, radio personalities, stand up comedians, pundits, commentators etc.- are men.

Here's a list of people who just won't shut up:

Rush Limbaugh- man.

Sanjaya Malakar- man.

Dane Cook- man.
 
This is my personal theory....

As a woman, I have a quota of words that must be expelled from my mouth every day. If it doesn't come out in one day, the remainder carries over to the next day and so forth.

Also, from my experience... when I ask Mr. Clueless a question he usually answers with total silence. It makes me want to knock on his brain and ask "Hello, anyone in there?"

Granted, I have met some males who love to talk which leaves me with another dilemma.... it's impossible to release my daily quota. Oh pity the man who has to deal with my overload of verbal dumping.

Again....this is just my personal theory. But I'm lovable.

:words:
 
I just had an odd thought that I'll try to frame here. With a lot of *If* in front :

If there is a difference in brain that leads to this difference in verbosity
If there was time in evolutionary terms for the genders to separate
If the roles played (hunter male vs. gatherer/teacher/nurturer female) had an impact on the differentiation
THEN
what about going further? Were the first scribes men? Were the first Babylonian or Egyptian or Mayan "passers on of knowledge through writing" men? or women? I think it was probably men, just guessing.
Could this then have been some sort of ultra-speedy social/sexual selection of the unfit hunters, with a strange sort of retribution attached?

You see where I'm going here. I'm a wordy yet nerdy male with poorish eyesight...couldn't hunt an insect in a paper bag...but my ancestors' success predisposed my kind through their survival and procreation, with the payoff being the prehistoric equivalent of auditing your taxes, or grading your paper, or letting Jesus himself get a meeting with Dick Clark, or fixing your computer. Also, what might these guys have been doing while all the he-men were out hunting... hmmm? All those women who want to talk a while... and why do poets have such a bad reputation, anyway?

Somehow I think I'll stride more confidently into tomorrow's social interactions knowing my caste is here for a reason.

:-)
 
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