In the article “Marked women, unmarked men,” author Deborah Tannen noted the evident bias given to women in almost every facet of human interactions—be these interactions personal, social, or professional in nature. Tannen focused on the political and biological foundations of this gender bias against women, wherein the norm has always been, ‘women are marked. ’ This status quo is considered as such because biologically, women are biologically equipped to be ‘make something of themselves,’ to prove themselves.Most basic of this is women’s ability reproduce.
This biological fact demonstrates that indeed, women have been marked biologically and historically to be noticed more and criticized more by society than men. The assumption that women are biologically and socially ‘marked’ than men will become the focus of this research proposal. With this framework in mind, the proposed scope of the research is to provide a comparative analysis of male and female interaction styles—socially and professionally.While there already have been literature looking into this phenomenon, the proposed research will adopt the theoretical foundation that Tannen proposed in her article. Thus, while the scope of the research analysis is to determine and compare men’s and women’s styles in both social and professional (business) interactions, the foundation of both analysis and interpretation will be based on the biological framework cited by Tannen and proposed by Ralph Fasold.
In terms of methodology, the analysis will involve tracking the same subjects/individuals under study, documenting the styles they adopt as they deal with different people socially and professionally. The suggested combinations for analysis include the following: male-male, male-female, female-female, and female-male interactions both at the social and professional domains.
