[lbo-talk] Women are still a closed book to men

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

> Women are still a closed book to men
> Research shows men mainly read works by other men
> 
> David Smith
> Sunday May 29, 2005
> 
> Observer
> 
> Men have finally realised what they are missing, but they still aren't all
> that keen to do anything about it.
> This is the conclusion of a study into sex differences in reading habits,
> which found that, while women read the works of both sexes, men stick to
> books written by men. And the boys can no longer use ignorance as an excuse.
> 
> 'Men clearly now know that there are some great books by women - such as
> Andrea Levy's Small Island - they really ought to have read and ought to
> consider "great" (or at least good) writing,' the report said. 'They
> recognise the titles and they've read the reviews. They may even have
> bought, or been given the books, and start reading them. But they probably
> won't finish them.'

I wonder how this shakes out in non-fiction? I read maybe one or two 
fiction books a year everything else is non-fiction. Most non-fiction 
books in the sciences and about economics or politics are written by 
men. 

Are there any differences in writing style by gender? When I picked up 
"Longitude" a few years back I kept thinking it was oddly written. I 
enjoyed it but it just didn't seem to read the way I expected it to. My SO 
suggested it was because it was written by a woman and not a man. I 
hadn't even noticed the gender of the author when I picked it up.

I realize every author has their own style but do men and women write 
differently? Do culture and society construct language differences by 
gender that manifest themselves in writing?

John Thornton