Summary of Women Talk Too Much

In her essay, “Women Talk Too Much”, Janet Holmes questions the validity of the stereotype that women talk too much. This was demonstrated by logos with deductive reasoning. Pathos was used directly at the beginning of her argument with proverbs back centuries from different countries. Thesis is put straight after those proverbs to make a refute to the point presented in the proverbs by giving abundant evidence and researches followed showing that it is man who “dominate” the talk, women actually talk little because they can hardly express themselves, let alone talking too much.

Homes believes that there are two main reasons cause this happen: social factors and perception implication. Frist and foremost, the purpose of men and women towards talking is varied with different social roles. Men tend to talk more in order to strengthen their “social status ” and gain power. While women are more emotional with talk to develop and maintain a good “social relationship”. This also fits with the fact that men and women performed differently in various “social context (formal versus informal)”. In addition to that, women are more sensitive than men, which is presented by a lively example given by a 16-year-old girl. As a result, women are more likely to be influenced by implication of men’s male chauvinism. Under this situation, “silence is golden ” to gain a good impression of people. To sum up, it is not that women talk too much but that men want to control their discourse power.