Coates: Male vs. female conversations

• "Men pursue a a style of interaction based on power, while women pursue a style based on solidarity and support"
• All-male groups of speakers tend to be hierarchal and establish dominant and submissive roles
• Groups of women are more flexible and cooperative, drawing out reticent speakers and expressing affection and concern
• Coates labelled these features "women's cooperative discourse"

Topic and topic development

• women typically choose to talk about people and feelings rather than things
• topics are developed slowly, building on others' contributions and arriving at consensus

Minimal responses

• active listernership and support are signalled subtly rather than overtly

Hedges

• used to encurage discussion and to avoid appearing challenging or threatening

Questions

• interrogative forms are used to encourage participation rather than to seek information

Turn-taking

• overlapping conversation aids cooperation and topic development
• the evidence suggests that women and men do pursue different interactive styles and that men seek to dominate and control...
• ...adversely women tend to offer support via minimal responses