Gender-specific use of the domestic telephone

The paper is based on a study on the uses of the telephone in 317 French ho mes. Detailed billing data over four months were collected and compared wit h interviews concerning each regular phone user in the household We focus h ere on the correlation between the observed duration of phone calls and the gender of callers and receivers. The reasons why women telephone more are discussed and related to the gender homophily in telephone networks. Data a lso show that the duration of phone calls depends on the receiver's gender. We suggest that politeness rules may govern the telephone call, did we arg ue that these civility rules explain in part why the receiver's gender exer ts the greatest effect on how the call is managed and on its overall durati on We propose to explore the hypothesis that telephone calls have an intera ctional format similar to that of a visit, but that status differences betw een caller and receiver may influence the unfolding of interactions between men and women through the caller's adjustment of his or her interaction st yle to the receiver's gender.