James Kent, in a 2006 article with the stunning citation "There is plenty of information online and in books," says "women talk for the sake of talking." It's possible that Kent is referring to the oft-quoted (and rarely cited) chestnut that men use 7,000 words per day whereas women use 20,000. Godwin Scerri uses this tidbit in his discussion of The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, which appears to be a counterpoint and expansion on Simon Baron-Cohen's "extreme male brain" theory of autism (1999, pdf).

Brizendine suggests that men are capable of the same social intuition and connection as women, but that they don't look for it, because the idea of conflict isn't troubling for them. Brizendine also claims that women (and not men) use both halves of their brain for language tasks, but a 2000 fMRI study fTCD study* by Knecht et al seems to suggest that this is not the case.

How much truth is there to the claim that women talk more than men? The answer may depend on context. It's possible that in a social environment, women talk more, but in a business environment, men dominate the conversation. Sadly, much of the research seems to be based on analysis of scripted television shows (e.g. Welch and Carlin, 2006) , rather than on natural conversation (Rayson et al, 1997).

*correction 4:00pm: I have had it pointed out to me that the Knecht et al study is NOT fMRI, but fTCD (functional transcranial Doppler sonography).

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I'm a talker. Apparently, I haven't really shut up since I was six months old. I even talk in my sleep (or so I'm told.) However, I remember the first time that I went on a date with a girl after I transitioned. I found myself quietly smiling and nodding, and letting her dominate the conversation. It was a very surreal feeling, but I never really found a place to join the conversation. I wasn't needed in it. I've noticed it happening with other women, since, but not with all women, and I can't tell if it's a difference in the way I treat them or the way they treat me, but sometimes I find myself sitting there, contributing nothing but the occasional "and then what happened?"