A number of studies have been conducted on “dominance” as
reflected in spoken interactional features, most of which deal with
English. Many of these studies adopt a quantitative approach, examining
the amount and distribution of interactional features such as amount of
talk, interruptions and overlaps, turn-taking, questions, and topic
initiations, and they have drawn conclusions on “dominance”
accordingly. The present study explores gender dominance in
conversation by analyzing conversational data from eight Japanese dyads
by integrating quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative
analysis of two dimensions of conversational dominance, sequential
dominance and participatory dominance, does not show any obvious gender
dominance; however, the qualitative analysis of three of the dyads
finds a clear pattern of male speakers' self-oriented
conversational style, which is manifested in their storytelling and
claiming expertise, and this is supported by female speakers'
other-oriented conversational style. Gender dominance therefore is seen
as a mutual construction. The conclusion discusses the importance of
integrating findings from both quantitative and qualitative analyses in
situated contexts to deepen understanding of the complexity of gender
dominance.The authors wish to thank
Dwight Atkinson, Andy Curtis, Jane Hill, and two anonymous reviewers
for their encouragement and valuable comments on earlier drafts of the
paper. They also wish to thank Simon Lai, senior research assistant,
for his help in conducting the statistical test.