A re-evaluation of current wisdom - both academic and popular - about men's and women's language. This book offers a new understanding of the role of language practices in both maintaining and disrupting gender inequality.

` Talking Difference provides an excellent critical review of a good selection of the research in language and gender published over the last 20 years, including a substantial amount from the area of psychology... I found this an exhilarating book, written with energy and wit. Crawford maintains a consistently critical approach, identifying contradictions and ambiguities in popular theories of gender difference, and exposing conceptual and methodological weaknesses in language and gender research. The volume is well-structured and readable; it will prove very valuable in undergraduate and beginning postgraduate courses in language and gender or in women's studies, as well as offering much which should interest students of communication studies and social psychology' - Language in Society`The alternative [to the essentialist] approach Crawford proposes is the social constructionist view... Crawford's analysis of conversational humor is particularly eye-opening... Talking Difference is not only a great read but also an acute criticism of current research and a very important contribution to feminist theory' - Journal of Pragmatics