10. Women's Place in Everyday Talk: Reflections on Parent - Child Interaction

I don't think I fully understood this article. Nothing in it made sense to me. I went to the discussion board on BB to see what I was missing and I still couldn't figure it out. What I am trying to understand is that men treat women as women treat children in conversation? If this is the case then it seems to relate to the previous article in Coates about compliments and how women appreciate compliments because "they serve as encouragement to continue with the approved behaviour." (107) In that regard it appears that even in conversation, women are subjugated to being the weakest link in any verbal encounter with men and children. Whereas men have control over the conversation through interruption, children do this when they seek attention, most likely from the female parent, by continued interruption until they have been acknowledged. In essence, it seems to me that women have the short end of the stick in most conversational arenas. We have to work that much harder in being heard and taken seriously.