The Sounds of Silence: How Men Silence Women in Marital Relations

Abstract

In this study seven white heterosexual married couples ran audio recorders in the central living areas of their homes for an average of 10 days to capture ongoing interactions. Afterwards, I conducted private interviews with each partner, asking her or him to identify likes and dislikes (communication preferences) in a variety of taped episodes. The participants' perspectives and contextual information were incorporated in my analyses of conversational development. I found an intricate pattern of interactions whereby the women did more of the conversational work, yet were more likely to be silenced by the men.