Jennifer Coates

Jennifer Coates looked at all-female conversations and built on Deborah Tannen's ideas. Her work therefore focuses on some of the ideas created and developed by Tannen. She provides useful comments on Deborah Jones' 1990 study of women's oral culture which Jones refers to as Gossip and categorises in terms of House Talk, Scandal, Bitching and Chatting. Coates also makes assumptions about the behaviour of boys and girls

Coates commented on each of the four categories: House Talk : Coates commented on how its distinguishing function is the exchange of information and resources connected with the female role as an occupation. Scandal : Coates said that this was a considered judging of the behaviour of others, and women in particular. Bitching : Coates proposed that Bitching is the overt expression of a woman’s anger at their restricted role and inferior status. They express this in private or to other women and they want only to make their complaints in an environment where their anger will be understood. Chatting : Coates suggested that this is the most intimate form of gossip, a mutual self-disclosure and a transaction where women use to their own advantage the skills they have learned as part of their job of nurturing others.

Coates also suggests that girls and boys develop different styles of speaking due to their largely differing interactions in their all boys and all girls friendship groups. She believes that Girls and boys tend to belong to same-sex groups where they will sit apart from one another and generally avoid confrontation and when it is required it is often aggressive. Coates also touches upon the tendency of girls to stick to playing in smaller groups, with just one or two other girls where their relationship is based predominantly on talk whereas boys will normally play in larger groups which are based on joint activities, for example sport, where there is some sort of ‘leader’ figure within the group.