"Participation in Electronic Discourse in a 'Feminist' Field" By Herring, Johnson, & DiBenedetto Blog #17

I still am amazed by the findings in this article--that men talk more than women in public settings. It may be that I'm from a large family of primarily girls (5 girls, 3 boys), so it seems to me that women talk far more than men and generally control the conversation more. I'm understanding more now that this is not always the case in academic discussion or classes, especially cyber discussions. What I found most interesting in this article was the fact that, even though men contributed about 80% of the posts and the points, they still reported that women controlled the discussion or that they dominated. This is so outrageous to me, and is evidence of the bias against women in general. It seems that women have to work twice as hard as men to be academically competitive, to be taken seriously, and to have their thoughts valued. Also, it seems that, in this study, the men felt that they were "shut out" rather easily. It's amazing to me that the women in this particular study put up with a lot, but at the first sign of resistance, the men complained.