Corrine Monet’s essay on gender roles in

conversation is a classic in French

anarchist and feminist circles. Using a

range of references, Monet charts the

expanding study of how women and men

communicate in everyday conversations.

The original title of the essay seems at

first puzzling and intriguing: The

distribution of tasks between women and men

in the work of conversation. This refers to

Monet’s final thesis that for communication

between the genders to flow requires work

on the part of women participants; a form of

work as invisible today as domestic work a

century ago.

Gender Roles

in

Conversation

Corinne