Brain Biology and Gendered Discourse

Abstract

Despite the greater presence of women in the workforce, their organisational experiences remain different from many men's. Most explanations for this difference are based on cultural socialisation or power and dominance. This paper offers the role of brain biology as a missing mediating link explaining the persistence of gendered communication in organisational discourse. The way men and women talk in interactions is mediated by differences in their brain structure, function, and chemistry. This produces gendered communication styles influenced by biology. A biopsychosocial model explains the simultaneous effects that biology, psychology, and socialisation have on each other for understanding gendered discourse style persistence. Following a characterisation of talk, a primer on brain biology is provided in three areas: (1) structure including hemisphere asymmetry, corpus callosum size, and defined brain areas; (2) function including organisation for language and information processing, attention, and emotion; and (3) chemistry, linking each area of brain biology to examples of gendered discourse differences characterising normatively masculine and feminine discourse styles, and a wide-verbalrepertoire style (WVR), used by some men and women. We conclude with implications of brain science for "doing leadership" through discourse in the workplace, in any role, at any organisational level, and the value of such differences. , and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. bs_bs_banner

The Impact of Gender, Culture, and Society on Korean Women's Mental Health

“…It is experienced when individuals' plans, desires, and needs are frustrated, and when they perceive the situation as unfair and a threat to their own ego (Arslan, 2010;Slavin-Spenny, Lumley, Thakur, Nevedal, & Hijazi, 2013). The prevailing belief is that women have greater difficulty than do men in expressing their anger, resulting in an increased incidence of anger suppression (Case & Oetama-Paul, 2015). This suppression is believed to result in negative consequences, such as depression, guilt, anxiety, passive aggressiveness, dependency, resentment, lack of selfdefinition, and low self-esteem (Videbeck, 2011).…”

“…This suppression is believed to result in negative consequences, such as depression, guilt, anxiety, passive aggressiveness, dependency, resentment, lack of selfdefinition, and low self-esteem (Videbeck, 2011). Case and Oetama-Paul (2015) indicated that there are clear sex differences in brain systems, and that sex hormones play a role in reactions to stress and threats. Both men and women have aggressive brain circuits that they use in different ways, thus causing them to become angry at different things.…”

“…Both men and women have aggressive brain circuits that they use in different ways, thus causing them to become angry at different things. For men, anger is induced by a perceived threat to autonomy, whereas women's anger comes from feeling ignored, having ideas discounted, feeling disrespected by too many interruptions, or being treated unfairly (Case & Oetama-Paul, 2015).…”

“…In the US and some Western European countries, women show greater emotion expression overall and, in particular, more positive emotions, and internalize negative emotions such as sadness and anxiety, but men express greater levels of aggression and anger than do women in some contexts (Chaplin, 2015). Gender roles for emotion expression and social context factors may be different for boys and girls growing up in different socioeconomic settings, cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, or societies (Bagdasarov & Edmondson, 2013;Case & Oetama-Paul, 2015).…”

Biological Factors in Organizational Behavior and I/O Psychology: An Introduction to the Special Section

“…The conceptual paper by Case and Oetama‐Paul probed the differences in brain structure, function, and chemistry that explain the contrasting communication styles between men and women. Specifically, the authors developed a biopsychosocial model in which the simultaneous effects of biology, psychology, and socialization are examined for better understanding of the gendered discourse patterns in organizations.…”