I don't think the paragraph quoted was implying that all men and all women converse in this way, merely that in the author's experience they tend to. Probably

I don't think the paragraph quoted was implying that all men and all women converse in this way, merely that in the author's experience they tend to. Probably if you divided the data further, by sexual orientation and upbringing, cultural background, and power-relationships you could find more nuanced distinctions, although probably recognizing such conversational styles is already so subjective that trying to divide the groups finely would lead to their being no more observable differences. I think that there are some average conversational differences based on gender, although the bell curves are probably so overlapping that it's almost meaningless to try and apply it to any individual case.