Gender and Intercultural Communication: The Québec Experience

The concept of gender is more a cultural construct than a biological way of being. There is little that is inherently biological or "natural" about a women's or men's roles and interactions in the social world. So much is culturally determined: the way we interact, the way we see ourselves (our identities), the way we see the world, and the way we see ourselves in relation to the world.

Gender-based interactions which take place across cultures (ethnic, national, racial, etc.) add yet another layer of complexity to these dynamics.

With globalization and massive immigration, cultural fusions and collisions form part of everyday living--especially in the West. Gender and intercultural relations has become a point of contention in fervently nationalist countries such as Germany, France, as well as in French Canada. The controversy has focused on North African and Near Eastern women, many of whom are Muslim.

Having lived in Québec, I witnessed a lot of arrogance on the part of non-Muslim women. These women tended to be over 50 years old and seemed concerned with "liberating" Muslim women from their supposed oppression. The solution of these predominantly white feminists was to ban the hijab, niqab, burqa...

There was no intercultural communication involved; rather, the communication was unidirectional--one group of women (white, feminist, established) dictating to another group of women (Eastern, Muslim, immigrant) what they thought was "best" for them. Did anyone think to ask Muslim women for their opinion?

Now the Québec Values Charter proposes to ban all government personnel from wearing obvious signs of religiosity (turbans, hijab, kippahs, etc.). Artfully disguised as a secularist project, it seems more like a veiled attack on Muslim women. This divisive policy has contributed to the fragmentation of intercultural communication in Québec.

 Instead of Western women imposing their belief systems on other women (and ultimately alienating them), more work needs to be done on fostering intercultural communication on gender and women's rights so that women of all cultural backgrounds can collaborate towards a better future.

Image from Gabrielle Wee's blog, "to know itself." The caption reads: Power to all types of feminists (with hijab or not) against all types or patriarchy!

Equal; and yet, different.

Equal; and yet, different.

Early struggles for gender equality attempted to erase difference between men and women. However, equality does not imply similarity. In general, women and men are fundamentally different--particularly in terms of their social interactions.  

Mary Ellen Guffey, Dana Loewy, Kathy Rhodes, and Patricia Rogin point out the communicative differences noted in women and men. According to the authors, during conversations men:

• pay less attention to the interlocutor (the other participant in the conversation)
• use interruptions as a way of directing the conversation 
• are attentive to facts 
• maintain eye contact less 
• move around more

Women, on the other hand:

• pay more attention to the interlocutor
• use interruptions to express agreement, to elaborate, and to become more engaged in the conversation
• are attentive to the whole person, seeing the conversation as a connective experience
• practice sustained eye contact 
• are more still ( 2013, p. 47).

The findings of the authors are, of course, generalizations: a great deal of communicative diversity exists both within and across gender categories. Nonetheless, being conscious of communicative differences can help make us more effective when listening and speaking.

Dr. Sylvia Gearing provides a summary of the communicative differences between men and women in her video, "How to Talk to the other Gender":

 
Works cited
Guffey, M. E., Loewy, D., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2013). Business Communication: Process and Product Brief (4th Canadian ed.). Toronto: Nelson.