Dale Spender

            Out of all the English Language Theorists I choose Dale Spender because of her analysis on the way women and men talk, but first let me tell you a little about Dale Spender. As a young child she was called a bookworm, and if she wasn't reading she was writing, talking, or acting her way through school. When she reached her college years she enrolled at Sydney University where she graduated and went on to become a teacher. She then returned to get a Masters Degree in English and then a Bachelor of Letters in Education. She has gone on to publish many books and argue many theories. .
             Spender states in her theory, Talking Power and Equality that men talked more in mixed sex conversations, that men determined the topic, and that women apologized to men again and again. Well to find out more about this topic I went to meet Dale Spender. She was more than happy to sit and discuss this topic with me. I began by asking, "How are you dealing with the change in technology?" She says, "Even at a very basic level, a small percentage of women (and a much larger percentage of men) will be computer-competent; will be the "literate" members of the new information society, but this is only the starting point." I said, "Yes women have been given the short end of the stick when it comes to the change in technology. For example, the information superhighway also known as the Internet would appeal to men more than women." Spender replied, "The technology age is a male dominated one that has left women in the dark. There are virtually no women in positions of power and influence in the new technological environment and there should be so that the decision making is fair and justifiable, so that we can make the best informed and most accountable decisions possible.
             I moved on and asked her what she felt were the most interesting find she had discovered. She told me that, "There was a study done where men's and women's speech was monitored, and a most interesting finding emerged.