Language & Occupation theories 

Eakins&Eakins

In 1976, Eakins and Eakins studied 7 university meetings. The results were that men spoke for longer during these meetings, with men's turns ranging from 10.66 to 17.07 seconds and the women's from only 3 to 10. This suggests that men are more dominant in some occupations as they are the ones who spoke for longer.                                                                           Edelsky 

In 1981, Edelsky conducted research on men and women by observing face to face conversations on office floors in a university in America. In a series of meetings, results showed that men were the more dominant speakers as they were the ones who took longer turns and made more jokes, had more arguments and done the most directly. However, during the 'free for all', women and men talked equally, and women joked, argued, directed and solicited responses more than men. 

Herbert & Straight

1989 - Herbert and Straight showed that compliments were more likely to flow from those of a higher rank compared to those of a lower rank. 

                                                                       Herring

In 1992, an email discussion took place with the participation of 30 men and 5 women. It took place on a linguistics distribution list. Only five women took part even though women make up nearly half the members of the linguistic society in America. On average, the emails men sent were twice as long as those of women's. In an email, men adopted an assertive tone such as 'it is obvious that...' which shows their dominance.  On the other hand, women would use a more personal tone. 

                                                                     Holmes 

From 1998, various studies from Holmes were conducted on managers. These studies showed that managers who were female were more likely to negotiate consensus compared to male managers who are less likely as they take time to ensure everyone genuinely agrees with what has been decided.

 Holmes, Holmes and Marra 2005, 2002

This research shows that women use the same amount of humour as men and for the same reasons which is to control discourse and to contest superiors. However, women are more likely to encourage supportive and collaborative humour compared to men. 

Hornyak 

(1994) This research has shown that the highest ranking person in the room (either men or women) always initiates from work talk to personal talk. 

Tracy and Eisenberg 

 In a role play where the individual had to deliver criticism to a co - worker regarding errors in a business letter, men showed more concerns for the feelings of the person they were criticizing. This was only when they were in the subordinate role, whereas women showed more concern when in a superior role.