John Gray, the author of the best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus floored the audience at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women by discussing the staggering number of false assumptions men and women have of each other during a panel on the cross-gender communication gap.
Cross-gender communication was identified as critical in establishing a good relationship, but viewed as being seldom achieved.
Participants acknowledged that this "myth of sexual spontaneity" [ 66] contributed to poor cross-gender communication and added to insecurities and uncertainties about relationship status on the woman's part.
The qualitative data analysis presented here focused on three major domains of inquiry: (1) relationship expectations, including preferred partner characteristics and types of relationships; (2) relationship experiences, including dynamics, cross-gender communication, and relationship power and decision-making; and (3) views on who is and is not at risk for HIV, and why.
Tutorial two, gender and communication, focuses on eliciting the influence of gender on doctor and patient communication and how stereotyped expectations of men and women can affect doctor-patient relationships.
Sherry Perlmutter Bowen, a gender and communication professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, says she's seeing men use social media to gather information and boost their influence.
The need to explore gender specific communication style for expressing emotion has been explored in several studies [ 63- 65].
Recommendations The recommendations relate to implementing safe motherhood in a broad manner whereby intersectoral linkages among health, education, nutrition, gender and communication need to be addressed.
Both treatment groups will be facilitated by the same person to prevent therapist confounds (e.g. therapist attributes such as age, gender and communication style, each of which could impact group retention/efficacy).
