Pamela Fishman's Theory

Pamela Fishman’s Theory

 

Pamela Fishman conducted an experiment which involved listening to 52 hours of pre-recorded conversations between young American couples. Five out of six participants attended graduate school and all of the participants were either feminists or interested in the women’s movement. Every one of the participants was white and between the ages of 25 and 35.
   When Fishman listened to the recordings, she concentrated on the use of tag questions, e.g. “Isn’t it?” “Couldn’t we?” She states that tag questions are frequently used by women, and follow thoughts or suggestions previously made. For females, tag questions are an effective way of beginning and maintaining conversations with men.
    Fishman argues that rather than being indicative of a lack of conversational awareness, women use tag questions to gain conversational power and elicit a response from their conversational partner. She claims that questioning is required for females when speaking with males because men do not often respond to declaratives alone.
    The frequent use of the phrase “You know?” found in the recordings was discovered by Fishman to be an attention-getting device. It is used by the female to determine whether or not their male conversational partner is paying attention. When “You know?” is combined with a pause, she is inviting the listener to respond to what she has previously said. The recorded conversation study showed that women used four times as many tag questions as men. This is, however, not because women are uncertain and do not have adequate communicative skills (which is what is suggested by Lakoff’s theory and the Deficit Model) but because they want to keep the conversation going.
    Fishman concludes that the communicating style of women is not due to lack of social training but due to the inferior social position of women.

1st and 2nd Wave Feminism – Goals and Successes

1^st Wave – 19^th and Early 20^th Century

At this time, the main focus of the feminist movement was for women’s suffrage (the right to vote). However, feminists also campaigned for the right to inherit property equally with their husbands. Other key concerns during this period were employment, marriage laws, education and the plight of intelligent middle-class single women.

 

Successes

Higher education became available to women and married women’s property rights were recognized – the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 was introduced. The girls’ secondary school system was reformed and there was more accessibility to different professions for women, especially in the medical sector.

 

2^nd Wave – 1960’s

2^nd wave feminism broadened its focus to include other issues such as inequality in the workplace, sexuality, family life, reproductive rights and legal inequalities. 2^nd wave feminism drew more attention to domestic violence and marital rape. Feminists also paid more attention to “de-sexing the English language”. Words embedded in our language that were considered to be “sexist” sparked debate as they were said to represent a patriarchal society.

   Feminists also fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, Equal Pay Act and other laws that would contribute towards equality.

 Successes

This period of feminist activity achieved various changes in social and cultural norms and general attitudes towards the roles of women in society. Common assumptions about women wanting to marry and start a family as soon as possible were eliminated as it was revealed that many women wished for more educational and career opportunities. Consequently, many new careers and professions became available to women.

   Awareness was also spread regarding issues such as rape and domestic violence; domestic violence shelters first opened in the late 1960’s.