Deborah Tannen Quotes

Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.

Black men don't like to be called 'boys,' but women accept being called 'girls.'

Once, power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact, power has no sex.

A women knows how to keep quiet when she is in the right, whereas a man, when he is in the right, will keep on talking.

To be political means to speak out, to risk being called 'catty', or worse. I don't hear men worrying about whether they may be right or not. They enjoy the fight, whether it is with words or fists. Women still tend to shy away from controversy, to be uncomfortable with competition.

Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong.

Men are always much more dignified than most women.

Men generally do not see women as competition.

It's difficult for me to work with women, because I find that direct references are made back to me too fast. Working with men, it gives it a little distance.

Keeping a feminine approach is vital - men hate bossy females.

It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.

When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment.

What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.

Being in construction my whole life - I was trained as an architect - I always had to work with guys. And I always did my homework and then challenged them to figure it out faster than me. They don't want to be shown up by a woman.

A woman can never be too rich or too thin, but until very, very recently, she could be too powerful, for which - if she wasn't smart enough to camouflage herself - she generally paid the price.

We're comfortable with women in certain roles but not comfortable with women expressing anger or fully accepting their power. The most daring question a woman can ask is, 'What do I want?'

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

Women have taken on traditionally masculine roles and professions, and there is no real equivalent for men. Men are still extremely reluctant, as we all are reluctant to see them, take on traditionally feminine roles or professions. That is just not something that they do easily.

How does a woman in authority convey that authority? Is it possible for a woman to rule without sounding shrill? Is it possible for a woman to manage without manipulating? All of these things seem to me to be very much at the fore today, and were no less the case 2,000 years ago.

Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.

Hollywood is run by men who are big on vulnerability.

Women with money and women in power are two uncomfortable ideas in our society.

In the same way that so many people read 'Harry Potter' and went to see 'Harry Potter,' just because a movie is about a kid, doesn't mean it's for kids, and just because a movie is about a girl, doesn't mean it's for girls.

I figured I could do 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World', because I believe it's the truth.

I just want to be a nice girl from the Midwest - I don't want to have to act like a heavy to be taken seriously, and I resent that I have to be so pushy and political sometimes just to do my job.