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In this selection Deborah Tannen asks,"Who talks more, women or men?". Tannen derives her conclusion from statistics and studies that focus on the different ways in which men and women communicate with the same sex and the opposite sex. Tannen also presents what talking means to a man and what it means to a women. Tannen explains how women are sterotypically regarded as the more talkative sex. Tannen also describes archaic ways in which women were punished for talking too frequently or in an impropper manner: Women were strapped to ducting stools and held under water until they nearly drowned, put into stocks with signs pinned to them, gagged, and silenced by a cleft applied to their tounges (9). Although such disiplinary actions no longer exist the sterotype that women are overly talkative still remains. In contrast to the old ideals held about women, studies show that men are more inclinded to talk more than women during certain on circumstance. Study after study finds that it is men who talk more- at meetings, in mixed group discussions, and in classrooms where girls or young women sit next to boys or young men (Tannen 9). Tannen supports this statement with a study conducted by Barbara and Gene Atkins during which men and women were tape-recorded and the lengh of their statements where timed. The men's turns ranged from 10.66 to 17.07 seconds while the womens turns ranged from 3 to 10 seconds (Tannen 10).
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