As you share feelings with a man, let him feel you are not trying to impose on him what to do. Avoid badgering him with too many questions or he may believe you are meddling, or trying to change him. He will either become distrustful or agree with you for the moment to appease you.

Pausing is a realistic and useful application in gender communication. This endows the listener with the opening to consider the speaker’s primary needs before reacting. This is especially useful when a female asks a male for support or a favor. Allow the male to work through his struggle. Provided you stay silent you stand a good chance of getting what you asked for.

Women tend to break the silence with comments like, “Oh, never mind,” or “It’s not that important,” or “Don’t bother.” Women also tend to ask tag questions, with qualifiers. This makes their statements less authoritative and convincing.

Men often outshout women, or speak louder to get their point across. This gets women feeling unevenly matched. Worse, it can be interpreted by women as a tool of oppression. The soft spoken, more tentative style common to women, however, can be wrongly interpreted as being uninformed or unsure.