WOMEN SEEKING top management positions have to be “linguistic experts” if they want to get ahead. They need to use language far more skilfully than men if they want to take control in a male-dominated working environment.
Just 12 per cent of UK plc board directors are women, according to Dr Judith Baxter of Aston University. The need for women to be more careful and controlled when addressing meetings may be a reason why there are so many more men in these senior positions, she said on the closing day of the annual British Science Festival in Birmingham.
She described her study of 164 executives, managers and board members in seven national and multinational companies that sought to assess differences in the way men and women used language. “We actually sat in and recorded management meetings and then analysed word for word what was said,” Dr Baxter said.
She found that women were far more likely to use recognised linguistic techniques when speaking in order to have the same impact as men. While they were valuable techniques, whether used by a man or woman, in order to be an effective manager, Dr Baxter said men did not rely on them as much as women. “It seems women have to be far more linguistically expert than men to hit the right note with colleagues,” she stated.
“There isn’t the imperative for men to use this compared to women,” she said. Arguably men can get away with imposing authority more than women. When women use very direct arguments, it may not go down so well.”
She described one method known as “double-voiced discourse”, which she likened to “a kind of linguistic second guessing”. If a speaker causes anger or dissent at a meeting they quickly readjust what they say in order to calm things, Dr Baxter said. “This is a vital survival strategy for women to get ahead.”
While Margaret Thatcher may have relished playing the “iron maiden”, she was more than willing to use a wide range of skills to retain control, including assertiveness, charm and humour, Dr Baxter said.
Pop star and judge on television show X-Factor, Cheryl Cole, also showed these linguistic skills when jousting with fellow judge Simon Cowell. Cowell was often dominant, abusive and teasing in his exchanges with her. "But she stands up to him" and he respects her for it, Dr Baxter said.
Women in senior management had to rely on these skills, given at that level “it is still a man’s world”, she said. Yet when there was a more balanced gender mix at a meeting, women did not have to employ these methods as much.