Dominating the convo
July 5, 2020 10:00 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for research / proof quantifying how much women and men talk in group settings.
Can anyone provide any stats / research / compelling anecdotes comparing how much women and men speak in group settings?
For instance-
A while ago I read that there had been a study showing that in groups, when women talk 15%, they are perceived as talking 50% of the time, and if they talk 30%, they're seen to dominate the conversation.
And I heard about a woman who knitted a scarf with two different colours, to indicate who was speaking in parliamentary meetings.
And I think I remember reading something that connected how few women there are in many movies and TV shows, and how that influences how much of a female voice people "want" to hear in a group setting.
Can anyone provide any stats / research / compelling anecdotes comparing how much women and men speak in group settings?
For instance-
A while ago I read that there had been a study showing that in groups, when women talk 15%, they are perceived as talking 50% of the time, and if they talk 30%, they're seen to dominate the conversation.
And I heard about a woman who knitted a scarf with two different colours, to indicate who was speaking in parliamentary meetings.
And I think I remember reading something that connected how few women there are in many movies and TV shows, and how that influences how much of a female voice people "want" to hear in a group setting.
Kieran Snyder, Men Interrupt More than Women (as reposted on language log, discussing interruption rates by gender and seniority in corporate tech meetings, plus response to questions) (previously)
Follow up study discussing interruption rates by gender and group composition in preschool aged children
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 11:27 AM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
Follow up study discussing interruption rates by gender and group composition in preschool aged children
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 11:27 AM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
Sue Montgomery, a borough mayor in Montreal, knitted during council sessions, using red for men and green for women. She's quoted here as saying it was 75 to 80 per cent red, although council was close to gender parity.
posted by zadcat at 1:01 PM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by zadcat at 1:01 PM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
The researcher Victoria Brescoll has published work quantifying the difference in how much men and women speak in the workplace. Looking through the citations and references of this paper may give some good leads for additional work on breakdowns of gender "voice" in the workplace.
https://som.yale.edu/news/2012/05/fearing-backlash-powerful-women-curtail-how-much-they-talk-at-work
"Brescoll found that powerful women are justified in their fear of incurring backlash from appearing to talk too much. In a final experiment, both male and female participants rated a hypothetical female CEO who talked more than other CEOs as significantly less competent and less suitable for leadership than a male CEO who spoke for the same amount of time."
The Geena Davis Institute also does research on ratio of speech for men and women in film. From a 2015 report analyzing representation in film:
"Male characters spoke two times as often as female characters (28.4% compared to 15.4%)."
"In films with male leads, male characters spoke three times more often than female characters (33.1% compared to 9.8%)."
posted by forkisbetter at 1:32 PM on July 5, 2020
https://som.yale.edu/news/2012/05/fearing-backlash-powerful-women-curtail-how-much-they-talk-at-work
"Brescoll found that powerful women are justified in their fear of incurring backlash from appearing to talk too much. In a final experiment, both male and female participants rated a hypothetical female CEO who talked more than other CEOs as significantly less competent and less suitable for leadership than a male CEO who spoke for the same amount of time."
The Geena Davis Institute also does research on ratio of speech for men and women in film. From a 2015 report analyzing representation in film:
"Male characters spoke two times as often as female characters (28.4% compared to 15.4%)."
"In films with male leads, male characters spoke three times more often than female characters (33.1% compared to 9.8%)."
posted by forkisbetter at 1:32 PM on July 5, 2020
If you are part of a group or team that would be curious to measure this about themselves, or want to measure it about a group you are part of, here is a nifty tool for doing so! Make sure that the group can't see the times accumulating during the meeting/call, or they are likely to self-adjust - which they may do if they know it is being measured, even if they can't see it.
You may choose to measure it proportionately to the % of the group that are men or women.
posted by amaire at 1:07 PM on July 7, 2020
You may choose to measure it proportionately to the % of the group that are men or women.
posted by amaire at 1:07 PM on July 7, 2020
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Deborah Cameron, The Feminist Critique of Language
and
Jennifer Coates, Language and Gender.
Don't read Deborah Tannen, she's more pop psychology on how to not get mad at your man with "language examples" that are essentially made up.
posted by bile and syntax at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]