Abstract
The paper examines male-female hierarchy in everyday interaction. Beginning with a discussion of the concepts of power and of conversation as negotiated activity, it suggests that successful interaction depends on work by the participants. Using tapes of daily conversations between three male-female couples as data, I present some observations on the ways conversation is controlled as well as the results of transcript analysis. The analysis describes the concrete strategies used by men and women in interaction. Women do more conversational work than men; this is the interactional manifestation of power relations. Finally, some suggestions are made on the importance of studying interactions in the areas of availability and maintenance of one's gender identity.
Keywords
ConversationHierarchyConversation analysisIdentity (music)Power (physics)Work (physics)Social relationPsychologySocial psychologySociologyCommunicationPolitical scienceEngineeringAestheticsArt
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Sex and Power in Interaction: Conversational Privileges and Duties
This paper examines conversational behavior which previous research suggests is differentiated on the basis of sex. Interaction is conceptualized in terms of a sexual division o...
The leader‐member exchange patterns of women leaders in industry: A discourse analysis
This study takes as problematic the communicatively constructed nature of Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and gender. Actual, routine work conversations for six female leaders and ...
WHEN THE DOCTOR IS A “LADY”: POWER, STATUS AND GENDER IN PHYSICIAN‐PATIENT ENCOUNTERS*
An extensive body of research indicates that men interrupt women much more often than the reverse, across a variety of situations. Some conclude that men's interruptions of wome...
Whose Text? Whose Context?
After a brief account of an old study on sociopolitical vs formalist styles of literary criticism and the lessons it taught about relating cultural objects to context, I turn to...
Nonverbal behavior, gender, and influence.
Participants viewed a videotape of either a male or female confederate delivering a persuasive message using a high task, social, submissive, or dominant nonverbal style. Partic...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1978
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 397-406
- Citations
- 663
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
663
OpenAlex
Cite This
Pamela M. Fishman
(1978).
Interaction: The Work Women Do.
Social Problems
, 25
(4)
, 397-406.
https://doi.org/10.2307/800492
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.2307/800492