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Power and Gender

To say that power and gender are intertwined is an understatement. Throughout history and across cultures, the defining distinction between the genders has been men’s power over women. Through patriarchy, which means “the rule of fathers,” men have used cultural practices to maintain their societal, political, and economic power (Mies, 1991). Men have built and sustained patriarchy by denying women access to power currencies.

Although many North Americans presume that the gender gap in power has narrowed, the truth is more complicated. The World Economic Forum’s 2010 report examined four “pillars” of gender equality: economic opportunity, educational access, political representation, and physical health (Hausmann, Tyson, & Zahidi, 2010). Across 134 nations representing over 90 percent of the world’s population, the gaps between women and men in terms of education and health have largely been closed. Women now have 93 percent of the educational opportunities of men, and 96 percent of the health and medical support. But they still dramatically lack both economic and political power. Women have only 59 percent of the economic opportunities and resources that men share, and a paltry 18 percent of the political representation. Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden top the list of the most gender-equal nations on the planet. Where do the United States and Canada rank? Nineteenth and twentieth overall; but in terms of political empowerment, the United States ranks 40th and Canada, 36th.

How does lack of power affect women’s interpersonal communication? As gender scholar Cheris Kramarae (1981) notes, women with little or no power “are not as free or as able as men are to say what they wish, when and where they wish. . . . Their talk is often not considered of much value by men” (p. 1). By contrast, what men say and do is counted as important, and women’s voices are muted. In interpersonal relationships, this power difference manifests itself in men’s tendency to expect women to listen attentively to everything they say while men select the topics they wish to attend to when women are speaking (Fishman, 1983). Whereas men may feel satisfied that their voices are being heard in their relationships, women often feel as though their viewpoints are being ignored or minimized, both at home and in the workplace (Spender, 1990).