Small-group Interaction and Gender

Abstract

This field of study examines how people's social locations as men and women affect the patterns of behavior that organize their interaction in groups that are small enough to permit person-to-person contact among the members. Interaction is distinctively important for gender because men and women interact at a high rate. For cultural beliefs about the nature and social value of gender differences to persist, everyday interactions must be organized to support them. Social role, expectation states, structural identity, and two-cultures theories provide the dominant explanations for this process. Research findings suggest that the extent of gender differentiation in interaction varies systematically by context, is shaped by gender status beliefs, and suppressed by formally equivalent roles. Small group interaction is an arena in which the appearance of gender differences is continually constructed through power and status relations and by identity marking through supportive, socioemotional behaviors.