ABSTRACT

COMMUNICATION, GENDER, AFRICA AND

THE WORLD: MATTERS ARISING
BY

CHUKWUMA ANYANWU (08035803550)

(bonnyanyanwu@yahoo.com)
Department of mass communication
Delta State University, Abraka.
Delta State, Nigeria.

AND

OTEGA OKINONO (08037245802)

(tegsluv@yahoo.co.uk)
Department of Sociology and Psychology,
Delta State University, Abraka.
Delta State, Nigeria.
The issue of gender has over the years occupied the front burner in
academics, political and traditional discourses. Indeed, gender
issues ought not to concern us in Africa for the simple reason that
it is a storm in a tea cup. Again, as some authorities have noted,
African men are incurably mother worshippers and one does not
enter into controversy with a mother he reveres. Thus, gender
issues are another strategy of the West to destabilize and abuse the
sanctity of the African Nation and womanhood. In this paper, the
thrust of the argument is that Africans, if not the entire black race
have rich culture which recognizes and apportions roles along the
line of relevance. To that end, the issue of gender is simply a
communication problem which can be resolved with recourse to
tradition and culture.

We sincerely apologise for the late submission of our abstract, we

are looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for your anticipated cooperation.

 Gender Communication Differences and Strategies

by Simma Lieberman

What can your organization do to create more equality for men and women? The first step to
creating equality is understanding the different strengths and styles that different genders bring to
the work table. Oftentimes men and women use different processes for decision making and
leadership. Here are some common ways that men and women differ:

1. Attitude towards tasks vs. relationships. Women tend to be more relationship oriented and
accomplish tasks by building relationships first. They then know who to ask and are comfortable
asking others to get things done. Men tend to be more task oriented and go straight to the task.
They build their relationships when they are in the task or project.

2. Way of Processing Information. When women have to make a decision they will often process
and look at options out loud while men tend to process internally until they come up with a
solution. Women often think that the man is being unresponsive to suggestions because of this
and men often think that women are looking for approval when they process out loud or don't
know what they are doing. Some men think that a woman's way of processing is a sign of
weakness.

3. Leadership Style. Because women are more relationship oriented, they tend to lead by
consensus. Men tend to be more hierarchical and include only the people closest to them at their
level in the decision making process when they think it is necessary.

4. Communication Styles. In non-verbal behavior women will nod their head to show that they are
listening. Men leave the conversation thinking that a head nod means agreement and will be
surprised to find out that the woman didn't agree at all. When a woman is speaking to a man and
he does not say anything and stays in neutral body language to show that he is listening, a
woman will interpret that as the man being bored or not understanding what she is saying. This
can lead the woman to become very uncomfortable and repeat what she is saying or ask the man
each time if he understands what she is saying. The man then interprets that as insecurity, or
talking to much and which then lead him to think she is not assertive or confident to be a leader.
Women will actually use more direct eye contact in conversation to create relationship and
connection while many men take that as a challenge to their power or position. Women will also
approach a man from the front while men often approach from the side at an angle, which is how
each of them tends to stand or sit when talking to others. Men interpret the face to face as too
personal, or aggressive and women will interpret the talking side to side as though he is not being
upfront or even hiding something from her.

5. Talk time. Men take up more time and space at meetings, while women try to make sure there
is more equality in the room. Despite stereotypes to the contrary studies have shown that men
talk more then women. Men interrupt women and talk over them much more that women interrupt
men. All of this can lead to the type of miscommunication based on assumptions of why member
of the other sex are using certain verbal and non-verbal behaviors. These miscommunications
can result in team breakdown, people not listening to each other and loss of good ideas.

How different styles lead to workplace disparity

While most women are in the workforce full time, there is still bias amongst certain men in
leadership roles that stop women from moving ahead. This bias can include the following ideas:

1. That there is only one style or way to lead and that is the more hierarchical one.

2. That most women can't be leaders because they are not "strategic."

3. Because many of these men are married to women who work in the home, they have a harder
time conceiving of women running organizations, and therefore are not as objective when making
hiring and promotion decisions.

4. There is an unconscious belief that women are not in the workforce on a permanent basis and
don't really want to move up or stay.

Strategies to Bridge Gender Differences and Value Diverse Styles

If you grasp the importance of effective gender communications and gender equality in the
workplace, then start making a difference today using the following gender communication
strategies.

1. Take these facts with a grain of salt. It's important not to use this information to stereotype all
men or all women. Of course not everyone fits these generalizations. These are cultural norms
based on research that showed that a large majority of men and women display some of these
characteristics. Some of these behaviors are based on acculturation and learning and some of
them are based on how our brains work.

2. Stay aware. Both men and women need to be aware of each others styles of communication
both verbal and non-verbal in order to avoid miscommunication and work better together.

3. Be aware of unconscious stereotypes and biases and be open to breaking past them in order
to leverage each others strengths.

4. Recognize that many different styles of leadership can be effective.

5. Men, be aware of how much time and space in meetings or group interaction. Make room for
the contributions of women. When asked for a decision by a women or for your opinion if you are
an internal processor, let her know you are in process of thinking about it so she knows she is
heard.

6. Women, get comfortable asserting more space for yourself. When dealing with men in decision
making, try to stop yourself from processing out loud. If you do process out loud, let the man
know that this is a process you use for decision making and you are not asking him what to do.

7. Finally, Get Information. Learn about male and female styles of communication and be able to
use both. You need both to deal with the complexity and diversity of situations in today's world
both personally and professionally. Don't be afraid to recognize differences. Once you do that it
will be easier to have open discussions in order to find similarities and use those differences to
achieve greater goals together.

Simma Lieberman works with people and organizations to create environments where people can
do their best work. She specializes in diversity, gender communications, life-work balance and
stress, and acquiring and retaining new customers.

Call Simma at 510.527.0700 or Email simma@simmalieberman.com Visit her website at

www.simmalieberman.com
Communication
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Communication (disambiguation).

Communication is the process of transfer information from one person to another

person.Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of
thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",[1], 1: an act or instance
of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between
individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior ... also: exchange of
information".[2] Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is
an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually
accepted[clarification needed] goal or direction.

Communication as an academic discipline relates to all the ways we communicate, so it

embraces a large body of study and knowledge.

Overview

Communication is a process whereby information is encoded and imparted by a sender to

a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the
sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of
communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and
sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign
language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing.

Communication is thus a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt

to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in
intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning,
analyzing, and evaluating. if you use these processes it is developmental and transfers to
all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through
communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.[3]

Communication is the articulation of sending a message through different media,[4]

whether it be verbal or nonverbal, so long as a being transmits a thought provoking idea,
gesture, action, etc. Communication is a learned skill. Most babies are born with the
physical ability to make sounds, but must learn to speak and communicate effectively.
Speaking, listening, and our ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are
skills we develop in various ways. We learn basic communication skills by observing
other people and modeling our behaviors based on what we see. We also are taught some
communication skills directly through education, and by practicing those skills and
having them evaluated.

There are also many common barriers to successful communication, two of which are
message overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time), and
message complexity.[5]

[edit] Types of communication

There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body
language, voice tonality, and words. According to the research:[6]

• 55% of impact is determined by body language--postures, gestures, and eye

contact,
• 38% by the tone of voice, and
• 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process.

Although the exact percentage of influence may differ from variables such as the listener
and the speaker, communication as a whole strives for the same goal and thus, in some
cases, can be universal. System of signals, such as voice sounds, intonations or pitch,
gestures or written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. If a language is
about communicating with signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or written symbols, can
animal communications be considered as a language? Animals do not have a written form
of a language, but use a language to communicate with each another. In that sense, an
animal communication can be considered as a separate language.

Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols

(sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are
manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of
languages. Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages use
patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around
them. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain
properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions.

There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but the linguist Max Weinreich
is credited as saying that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy". Constructed
languages such as Esperanto, programming languages, and various mathematical
formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human languages.

Dialogue or verbal communication

A dialogue is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities. The etymological

origins of the word (in Greek διά(diá,through) + λόγος(logos, word,speech) concepts like
flowing-through meaning) do not necessarily convey the way in which people have come
to use the word, with some confusion between the prefix διά-(diá-,through) and the prefix
δι- (di-, two) leading to the assumption that a dialogue is necessarily between only two
parties.

Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and

receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture,
body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such
as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols and infographics, as well as
through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication. Nonverbal
communication plays a key role in every person's day to day life, from employment to
romantic engagements.

Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice
quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm,
intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as
handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons.A portmanteau
of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon, an emoticon is a symbol or
combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form.

Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals
travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be
representative of words, objects or merely be state projections. Trials have shown that
humans can communicate directly in this way[7] without body language, voice tonality or
words.

Visual communication

Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid. It is

the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon.
Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography,
drawing, graphic design, illustration, colour and electronic resources. It solely relies on
vision. It is form of communication with visual effect. It explores the idea that a visual
message with text has a greater power to inform, educate or persuade a person. It is
communication by presenting information through Visual form.

The evaluation of a good visual design is based on measuring comprehension by the

audience, not on aesthetic or artistic preference. There are no universally agreed-upon
principles of beauty and ugliness. There exists a variety of ways to present information
visually, like gestures, body languages, video and TV. Here, focus is on the presentation
of text, pictures, diagrams, photos, et cetera, integrated on a computer display. The term
visual presentation is used to refer to the actual presentation of information. Recent
research in the field has focused on web design and graphically oriented usability.
Graphic designers use methods of visual communication in their professional practice.
Commercial application

Strategic Communications in Commercial Environment is the non-military application of

strategic communication principles and techniques are a new way for organizations to
respond to a changed business landscape that results from today's networked
communication environment. Back in the day, organizations could segment publics and
audiences and target unique messages to each one. Employees, investors, partners,
citizens of local communities, potential buyers and consumers could each receive
messages that were not widely known or shared by the other groups. Now, all potential
publics and audiences can access information about the organization. Providing
dissimilar, even contradictory information is no longer possible and may even be
problematic. Consumers see information targeted to investors and partners, employees
see messages sent to members of the community. In short, with little effort, almost
everyone can see almost everything.

Within organizations, the need to integrate communication efforts is moving the authority
for creating messages from silos (media relations, investor relations, public relations,
advertising, sales and promotion, community relations, corporate training)into corporate
headquarters. When organizations adopt strategic communication processes, the message-
originating departments -- although they were never fully autonomous -- must report to
corporate communications units that issue guidelines for all organizational
communication programs and efforts.

The term "strategic communication" means more than just getting the right message to
the right people...and so on. It also means ensuring that communication programs meet
the objectives of the organization. In order to meet those objectives and to obtain
sufficient evidence to suggest that a program can or will meet them, SC is typically
supported by a detailed research plan. Once the objectives are clarified, research to define
audiences, to measure current attitudes, and to test ways to change those attitudes must be
undertaken. Once the coordinating unit develops concepts, there will be focus groups
and/or surveys to identify the most effective concepts. Final messages are also tested. The
early research that shapes the message is called "formative evaluation." After
implementation of the communication program, "summative evaluation" takes place. This
research answers the questions: Did the program reach its goals? What effects did the
campaign have? What remains to be done?

Research support for communication programs has long been a facet of advertising and,
more broadly, marketing campaigns. In the commercial marketplace, sales are often the
measurement for success and failure. In PR, the metric has generally been "clip files," the
number of mentions in the editorial press: the more clips and the more influential the
publications, the better. The underlying assumptions of strategic communication begin by
rejecting these silos and adopting more robust measurements at all stages of program
development, implementation, and post-campaign evaluation.
Gender Equality

Identify & Get Informed

Defining the meaning of “gender” has been a contentious issue for many people
around the world. Unlike the pre-determined biological differences between
males and females, gender is solely determined by our social environments,
which include our values, history, and culture. For many cultures, gender has
commonly been referred to as a dichotomy distinguishing males and females.
For example, females throughout history have been designated the role of
“keeper of the family,” which was often justified by the female capacity to give
birth to children. On the other hand, males have historically been given the role
as “protectors of the family,” which in turn has been justified by their physical size
and incapacity to give birth to children.

Today for some people, gender is expressed on a continuum with [traditional]

biological differentiations between males and females existing on the far most
opposite poles of the gender continuum. For others, gender expectations have
been a continuous site of struggle especially for members of historically
oppressed groups such as women and women of color. This contention between
genders has largely surrounded matters of equal access to education, quality
healthcare, equal employment & decision-making, and freedom from the threat of
violence in all its forms. In response to this inequality between genders,
worldwide social movements have emerged calling for gender equality between
men and women of all social and economic statues. With that, international
agreements such as the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women” (1979) has been adopted by the United Nations
to help close the “gender gap” that inequality between men and women at all
levels of society has fostered for centuries.

Gender equality is an issue that affects the lives and futures of women as much
as it does men, and thus any future actions taken to close the gender gap will
require the equal effort and support of both genders.
Lead & Get Others Involved

What does it take to lead others on creating change for more gender equality?
Twenty-one year old Boipelo Semere along with a group of young people got
together to discuss what they could do to bring about gender equality in
Botswana. The group organized a series of facilitated discussions entitled 'telling
the story' to raise awareness and inspire action among students and community
professionals as part of the larger Girls' and Boys' Education Movement
(http://www.ungei.org/news/index_369.html) to make education accessible to all.
The 'Telling the Story" initiative uses storytelling and mentorship relationships
between younger and older youth as well as with professional women from the
community to foster a climate of social change for all.

If you have lead others to get involved in making an impact on the issue of
gender equality or any other global issue, let the rest of the TakingITGlobal (TIG)
community know by writing your own TIG member's story and inspire others to
create change just like you!

Get Connected

Now that you're inspired to lead others on this global issue click on the web links
below to learn more about how you can get involved with this issue.

Get involved in International campaigns promoting gender justice and equality

with Oxfam International

Volunteer with Mopel and join the movement for the promotion of gender equality
in Liberia to help improve the livelihoods, literacy and overall quality of life for
women and men in the region

Join the "Global Call to Action Against Poverty" in calling for an end to poverty
and inequality in your community

Plan & Get Moving

How are you going to share this global issue with others? On the TakingITGlobal
(TIG) website you can chose to sign a petition calling for an end to gender
inequality and discrimination or you can use TIG action tools to create your own
petition or commitment to help further the cause. Why not start a TIG group or a
project dedicated to sharing and reflecting on the actions we all can take to help
make gender equality a reality in your community and around the world. If you're
not sure how to get started, click on one of TIG's Action Guides to learn how to
start and grow the action you want to take on this global issue. While you are
offline, you can plan an event, community meeting, open forum or workshop with
your family, friends, and community to celebrate International Women's Day.

Another way you can get moving on the global issue of gender inequality is by
taking an online course such as "The global development agenda: Tools for
gender-sensitive planning and implementation (http://www.gendermatters.eu),"
which is designed to train both men and women to be reflective on and think
critically about the tools that are necessary to ensure practical planning towards
gender equality while helping participants utilize those skills to implement lasting
change in the area of gender equality.

If communication is your thing and you want to learn how you can better
communicate the message of gender equality to your community, check out the
Communication Initiation Network's Millennium Development Goal 3:
Communication Tools article
(http://www.comminit.com/en/sections/terms/306,122/253) and choose from
numerous communication tools such as using the internet, film, and even in
person interactions to communicate your actions to the world.

This is just the beginning, there are a world of opportunities for you to plan and
get moving on...so what are you waiting for and get started today. of our online
discussions described below.

Having a Lasting Impact

 Remember, learning about a new global issue is only the
first step to developing the skills you need to have a lasting
impact. So let the rest of TIG know what kind of change you
want to see with the issue of gender equality by joining us
in one GENDER AND SOCIETY
"Men have always been afraid that women could get along without them."

--Margaret Mead

In addition to age, gender is one of the universal dimensions on which status

differences are based. Unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social
construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and
women are to follow. According to Gerda Lerner in The Creation of Patriarchy,
gender is the "costume, a mask, a straitjacket in which men and women dance their
unequal dance" (p.238). As Alan Wolfe observed in "The Gender Question" (The
New Republic, June 6:27-34), "of all the ways that one group has systematically
mistreated another, none is more deeply rooted than the way men have
subordinated women. All other discriminations pale by contrast." Lerner argues
that the subordination of women preceded all other subordinations and that to rid
ourselves of all of those other "isms"--racism, classism, ageism, etc.--it is sexism that
must first be eradicated. For some specifics, see B. Deutsch's "The Male Privilege
Checklist" and Nijole Benokraitis & Joe Feagin's "Overt/Subtle/Covert Sex
Discrimination: An Overview."

Women have always had lower status than men, but the extent of the gap between
the sexes varies across cultures and time (some arguing that it is inversely related to
social evolution). In 1980, the United Nations summed up the burden of this
inequality: Women, who comprise half the world's population, do two thirds of the
world's work, earn one tenth of the world's income and own one hundredth of the
world's property. In Leviticus, God told Moses that a man is worth 50 sheikels and a
woman worth 30--approximately the contemporary salary differentials of the sexes
in the United States. (Actually, according to one "Current Population Survey" of
the US Census Bureau, American women in 1999 earned approximately 77% of
what men made, in 2000, according to the Department of Labor, their median
weekly earnings were 76% of the male median.) What might be the socio-cultural
implications if men were to also be the child bearers? Follow the first human male
pregnancy (well, not really) at www.malepregnancy.com.
And the significance of the stamps above? A recent U.S. Postal Service publication,
"Women on Stamps", holds some interesting methodological possibilities. Putting a
deceased individual's likeness on a stamp is one way by which political immortality
is conferred. Of the hundreds of Americans so immortalized only a handful are
women: 16, to be precise, through 1960; 19 through 1970; and 29 through 1980 (any
connection between this 50% increase with the ERA movement of the seventies?).
An enterprising student may wish to investigate and compare how this female
proportion of immortalized citizens varies across countries and time.