Lynn D Carlisle DDS

Women in dentistry. “Is there a difference between men and women dentists and the way they practice dentistry?" Now I know this sounds like a question about the “hysterical discovery of the obvious”, but the women’s liberation movement of the 70’s strongly suggested that there is not. Surprisingly, I cannot find any writing and research that specifically answers this question.

This is the second of a three part series that looks at the question "Is there a difference in the way men and women practice dentistry?"

This is a long article, printing it will make it 25% easier to read.

One of the central questions about women in dentistry is; “Is there a difference in the way men and women practice dentistry”?

Anecdotal evidence suggests there is, but it is hard to find research on whether there is a difference or not.

But, before asking this question about women and men in dentistry, we should answer the question “Is there a difference between men and women"? Now I know this sounds like a question about the “hysterical discovery of the obvious”, but the women’s liberation movement of the 70’s strongly suggested that there is not. The buzzword from the 70’s was “mandatory unisex”, and it was politically incorrect to even to mention differences between the sexes. Research prior to the 1990's assumed that women were small men. Vestiges of this mindset are still very prevalent today.

Deborah Tannen, Ph D's research on women and men in conversation and men and women at work is an excellent place to start examining the above question.

Tannen is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She has written three books on conversational styles between men and women. “That’s not what I meant!, How conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others”; “You just don’t understand, Women and Men in conversation”, and “Talking from 9 to 5, Women and men at work”.

Tannen’s research has shown that women and men's conversational styles are influenced by gender. These styles of interacting are learned as children growing up. Children tend to play in sex-separate groups in which very different styles are learned, practiced and reinforced.

Tannen’s research has shown that women and men's conversational styles are influenced by gender. These styles of interacting are learned as children growing up. Children tend to play in sex-separate groups in which very different styles are learned, practiced and reinforced.

Tannen had this to say about the difference in conversational styles “The reason ways of talking, like other ways of conducting our daily lives, come to seem natural is that the behaviors that make up are ritualized.”

Tannen is careful to state that “our ways of talking are influenced by every aspect of out communities, so no two women or two men are exactly alike, any more than any two New Yorkers or Spaniards or forty-year-olds are necessarily alike. Yet understanding the patterns of influence on our styles is crucial to understanding what happens to us in on conversations – and our lives”.

She wrote, “No one understood the ritual nature of everyday life better than sociologist Erving Goffman, who also understood the fundamental role played by gender in organizing our daily rituals”. “Goffman suggests the term ‘genderism’ for a ‘sex-class individual behavioral practice'.”

(Tannen’s work was adapted and popularized in the best selling book “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” by John Gray.)

Tannen’s work suggests that men and women come to private talk, public talk and work talk differently as a result of the gender influences of their up-bringing in the United States' culture and society. Because of this gender influence, men and women converse or talk differently. Understanding these differences is critical to finding a common ground of meaning that goes from “you just don’t understand!” to ”you do understand!”.

Tannen’s books recognize the importance on gender in men and women’s perception of the world, but do not specifically answer the question: “Are men and women different?”

Louann Brizendine, MD’s book “The Female Brain” does answer this question. It reviews two decades of research on female brain chemistry and comes to the conclusion that “There are those who wish there were no differences between men and women. … There are still those who believe that for women to become equal, unisex must be the norm. The biological reality is there is no unisex brain. … Until the 1990’s, researchers paid little attention to female physiology, neuroanatomy, or psychology separate from that of men.”

Brizendine is a neuro-psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco and founded the Women's and Teen Girls' Hormone and Mood clinic. She lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband and son.

What we’ve found is that the female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman’s reality. -- Louann Brizendine, MD

Brizendine states how a woman’s neurochemistry and hormones affect her: “What we’ve found is that the female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman’s reality. They can shape a woman’s values, desires and tell her day to day, what’s important. Their presence is felt at every stage of life, right from birth.”

This seems like a regression back into a reductionistic, deterministic view of how a woman’s biology creates her life. But, Brizendine veers away from this world view when she states: “If we acknowledge that our biology is influenced by other factors including our sex hormones and their flux, we can prevent it from creating a fixed reality by which we are ruled. The brain is nothing if not a talented learning machine. Nothing is completely fixed. Biology powerfully affects but does not lock in our reality. We can alter that reality and use our intelligence and determination both to celebrate and, when necessary, to change the effects of sex hormones on brain structure, behavior reality, creativity – and destiny."

The question “Are men and women different?” has been answered with a cultural, environmental, linguistic, biologic, neuro-anatomical, and bio-chemical yes.

Brizendine’s and Tannen’s work and my curiosity about women in dentistry led me to wonder how much of an influence culture, gender, biology, neurology, and biochemistry have on the way men and women practice dentistry.

So I sent Dr. Tannen the following e-mail:

“Dr. Tannen,

I have had this chart (see below) for many years. I received it in a workshop I attended.

I have been trying to track its author. Did you originate it? If this is your work, may I have permission to publish it?

I am writing an article on the potential differences in men and women dentists; the challenges women dentists may face and how women may change the way dentistry is practiced. I want to use this comparison as a way of pointing out the potential differences.

I am asking the question “does the dental school education experience reduce these differences and make the women more like men because of the traditionally male dominated health care educational system?”

The descriptions in blue are sentences that I am unsure of the meaning. I have enjoyed your work.

I have attached it in case the e-mail garbles the format.

Thanks, Lynn”

Lynn Carlisle DDS www.spiritofcaring.com Resource center for building outstanding Dr/pt relationships.

Dr Tannen replied, "Yes, this is my work" and “I think you are on to something.” Well, I might be, so let me ramble a bit as I try to link Tannen’s and Brizendine's ideas with my own. But first, here is a summary of Women and men in conversation: