This is not to say that all men talk in class, nor that no women do. It is simply that a greater percentage of discussion time is taken by men's voices. The research of sociologists and anthropologists such as Janet Lever, Marjorie Harness Goodwin, and Donna Eder has shown that girls and boys learn to use language differently in their sex-separate peer groups. Typically, a girl has a best friend with whom she sits and talks, frequently telling secrets. It' s the telling of secrets, the fact and the way that they talk to each other, that makes them best friends.
Boys also tend to play in larger groups that are hierarchical.
These patterns have stunning implications for classroom interaction. Most faculty members assume that participating in class discussion is a necessary part of successful performance. Yet speaking in a classroom is more congenial to boys' language experience than to girls', since it entails putting oneself forward in front of a large group of people, many of whom are strangers and at least one of whom is sure to judge speakers' knowledge and intelligence by their verbal display. Another aspect of many classrooms that makes them more hospitable to most men than to most women is the use of debate-like formats as a learning tool. But ritual opposition is antithetical to the way most females learn and like to interact.