Working in a Male-Dominated Area I How to Address Different Styles of Communication

MODUL I

Working in a Male-Dominated Area
How to Address Different Styles of Communication

In male-dominated research environments the rules of communication are rarely written down – they are simply practised. Who speaks first, for how long, whose contribution is remembered afterwards and whose is quietly absorbed by someone else: these patterns shape careers long before any formal decision is taken. This workshop makes the different styles in the room visible and treats them as repertoire rather than as character. Participants work on situations from their own week – lab meetings, committees, supervision, the corridor at a conference – and try out responses that still sound like themselves.

Key Areas

• Reading communication styles as repertoire, not as personality
• High status and low status: status flexibility as a craft that can be learned
• Interruptions, the appropriation of ideas, and the distribution of speaking time • Case work on participants’ own situations in small groups, with feedback