Gender,Role,and Power: A Content Analysis of Speech

Abstract

It seems possible that gender differences may often be reducible to differences in role. The authors sought to explore the effects of role and gender on hostile and anxious communications. Role was manipulated through the use of the Melian Dialogues, a technique borrowed from community organization training that asks participants alternately to assume roles of superior and inferior power. Fourteen groups of college students, each with a four-member team of women and a four-member team of men, engaged in the Dialogues. Their communications, recorded and transcribed verbatim, were coded according to the Gottschalk-Gleser method of content analysis. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that while role had a highly significant effect (p < .0001) on the content of the communications, neither gender nor the order in which roles were assumed exerted a significant influence. Results were interpreted as a consequence of role justification.

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