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Gender and Biology

Although often conflated, sex and gender are separate and distinct concepts. Sex refers to physiological and biological differences between men and women (e.g., male or female). Gender refers to one's social and psychological sex role orientation (e.g., masculine, feminine, and androgynous). Although there are several differences between men and women biologically, not all biological differences manifest themselves in communication differences. Research into differences in hormones and brain lateralization routinely explores intersections of sex, biology, and communication.

Source of Biological Differences

Scholars who have examined biology and communication have often done so from an evolutionary perspective. The basic idea of evolution is that species evolve and adapt in response to their environmental circumstances. For most of human history, people lived in small hunter-gatherer societies. These societies also experienced high rates of both mortality and fertility. Thus, women spent much of their lives pregnant, nursing, and caring for small children. Women were also the primary village leaders. Men, on the other hand, were primarily responsible for exploring, hunting, and gathering. Due to women's role as leaders of the group and their primary role in the development of family, communication abilities were a central issue for women, whereas they were less important for men.

Because women's success in survival and reproduction relied heavily on their ability to communicate with others in the village and care for young children, it is argued that as natural selection occurred, women attained greater social skills, especially nonverbal skills. Similarly, it is argued that men's survival and reproduction relied heavily on their ability to hunt, gather, and compete with other males for mating opportunities. Thus, through the process of natural selection, men attained greater strength, speed, and spatial skills. Two of the areas where biological differences could have been shaped through evolutionary processes to produce differences in communication are hormones and brain lateralization.

Hormones

One important biological difference between men and women that appears to be related to communication behavior is the type and amount of particular hormones. Sex hormones, which include androgens (male sex hormones) and estrogens (female sex hormones), are one well-known biological difference between men and women. Although both sexes produce androgens and estrogens, men produce greater amounts of androgens and women produce greater amounts of estrogens.

In women, estrogen (which includes estrone, estradiol, and other hormones) is the primary sex hormone. Estrogens play an important role in preparing the body for pregnancy and lactation. Further, low levels of estrogen and estrogen fluctuation have both been related to low mood in women. Unfortunately, there is still much that is unknown about how estrogen is related to communication behavior.

In men, testosterone is the most important sex hormone. Testosterone is essential for the continuous production of sperm. The strongest link between testosterone and communication is the link with aggressive, competitive, and dominant behavior. Interestingly, several studies have linked men's testosterone levels with both marital and parental status. Specifically, testosterone levels drop when men marry, and they drop again when men become fathers. Researchers have speculated that these decreases in testosterone lead to decreases in aggressive behavior and thus facilitate more nurturing behaviors, helpful in both marriage and parenthood.

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