Style Matters

Abstract

Chapter 2 opened with a story about my time in Japan in the mid-1980s when the effort of socializing and doing business with the Japanese took its toll. I was young, gaijin, and female. In a culture that discriminated against women shamelessly it was nigh on impossible for me to gain respect, let alone any authority in the business world. I was not a man, but neither did I behave or talk in the deferential manner that was expected of many of the young Japanese women whom I met at that time — hesitant sentences, peppered with apologies and shy giggles with hands covering their mouths. Did the style of communication of these Japanese women reflect an innate feminine characteristic, or was it an outcome of women’s unequal status in Japanese society?