Part of the reason images of women in positions of authority are marked by their gender is that the very notion of authority is associated with maleness.

For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships.

Life is a matter of dealing with other people, in little matters and cataclysmic ones, and that means a series of conversations.

The argument culture urges us to approach the world-and the people in it-in an adversarial frame of mind. It rests on the assumption that opposition is the best way to get anything done: Conflict and opposition are as necessary as cooperation and agreement, but the scale is off balance, with conflict and opposition over-weighted.

The allure of love is to have someone who knows you so well that you don't have to explain yourself. It is the promise of someone who cares enough about you to protect you against the world of strangers who do not wish you well.

All communication is more or less cross-cultural. We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female - all result in different ways of talking.

Some days you just want to get dressed and go about your business. But if you're a woman, you can't, because there is no unmarked woman.