THE GREAT DIVIDE?" : A STUDY OF MALE AND FEMALE COMMUNICATION IN SINGAPORE"

Abstract

This honours thesis is a study of male and female communication in Singapore. It is an attempt to delve into the some of the common stereotypes and ideologies that are associated with male and female speech. Ideas of what constitutes gender identity have been neatly subsumed under the social constructs of masculinity and femininity respectively. And these ideas which are already embedded within the individual, will be examined within the framework of their communicative styles. Integral to the discussion are two main modes of communication, that is the co-operative and competitive mode which will be adopted to categorize the research findings of gender differences and similarities. From the myriad of theories, explanations and ideas that have mushroomed in recent decades, two main paradigms have been singled out to explicate the differences that often characterize men and women. One of the them is the dominance approach which argues that these differences are deeply rooted in the structural organization of social life, in which males are vested with more power and authority than females. As such, the proposition lies in undermining male control or by elevating women's status through certain coping strategies. On the other hand, the difference approach argues that the differences that distinguish the sexes are not reflections of inequality but rather the acquisition of different socialization practices.