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The head of the Tokyo Olympics organising committee has said there shouldn't be too many women board members because they speak too much. Do women really speak too much?
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“Women have a strong sense of rivalry. If one raises her hand to speak, all the others feel the need to speak, too. Everyone ends up saying something.”
- Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee
- Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee
The perception that women are more talkative is rooted in androcentric ideas that see comments by women as deviating from the dominant masculine norm. Workplace culture tends to be patriarchal. Speech is a crucial part of this culture & shapes who's seen as important/in-charge.
A 2012 study showed that women spoke substantially less than men at meetings & are often at a disadvantage in institutional scenarios where they are in the minority. Another 2014 study also demonstrated that women are more likely to be interrupted in a conversation by men & women
Several studies have also shown that when women and men enact authority in professional settings, women use language to downplay their authority and reduce any rank differences between themselves and their subordinates, whereas men tend to reinforce these differences.
Women are often left in a double-bind. If they talk too much, they're seen as "bossy" but if they speak less, they're looked over & labelled 'weak'. Women are often compelled to behave in a manner that's not too forceful/bossy for fear of being seen as aggressive & less likeable.
The perception that women speak more than men is also in part based on the listener's bias. A 2008 study found that in a conversation involving both men and women, women's contributions are overestimated despite men being an equal part of the dialogue.
This bias is also due to the fact that we listen to men's voices more often than women's voices. So when women do talk, it is often seen as "too much".
We see women being interrupted, shutdown & mansplained in public & online spaces all the time. Patriarchy has been silencing women for generations, demanding subservience. Sexist statements that label women as talkative & annoying petty rivals serve to further stifle our voices.
Sources- Gender Inequality in Deliberative Participation.- Christopher F. Karpowitz, Tali Mendelberg, And Lee Shaker (2012); Influence of Communication Partner’s Gender on Language- Adrienne B. Hancock, Benjamin A. Rubin (2014)
Sources (contd.)- Gender And Language In The Workplace- Shari Kendall and Deborah Tannen; Speaker sex and perceived apportionment of talk- Anne Cutler, Donia R. Scott, Cambridge University Press.
