Key points
- Women speak nearly 20,000 words a day- 13,000 more than men – due to higher levels of the FOXP2 “language protein.”
- While women are generally more talkative, researchers stress that context matters – men can be equally chatty in the right setting.
ISLAMABAD: In countless living rooms around the world, a familiar scene unfolds: the woman chats away, stringing together stories, questions, and commentary like a master storyteller, while the man nods along in quiet endurance or, as he might call it, “active listening.” Refuse to engage, and he’s accused of being distant. Ask for a summary, and he might just spark a full-blown domestic revolution.
But now, science has weighed in on this age-old stereotype, and the results are as fascinating as they are affirming.
According to a recent study by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, women speak nearly 20,000 words a day, a whopping 13,000 more than the average man, who clocks in around 7,000. The chatter gap, it seems, is not just cultural- it’s biological.
Researchers, led by Dr. Louann Brizendine and supported by neuroscientists Dr. Berta Shankleman and Dr. Mark Liberman, traced the cause to a protein called FOXP2- nicknamed the “language protein.” Women, the study found, have significantly higher levels of FOXP2 in the language centers of their brains, which may explain their verbal agility and communication dominance.
Speech-like behavior
The research, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, didn’t just focus on humans. In a clever twist, scientists turned to newborn rats to explore whether the protein affects speech-like behavior in other species. Male rat pups, surprisingly, were the noisier ones -crying out to their mothers twice as often as their female siblings. It turns out, they too had more FOXP2.
In a controlled experiment, researchers boosted FOXP2 levels in female pups and reduced them in males. The results? The girls got chatty, and the boys went quiet, instantly altering the mother rat’s attention patterns. Intrigued, the team extended their findings to young children and found that girls aged 3 to 5 had 30 per cent more FOXP2 than boys in the regions of the brain critical for speech.
Dr. Margaret McCarthy, one of the lead researchers, summed it up succinctly: “Higher levels of FOXP2 are associated with the more communicative gender- whether it’s girls or male rats.”
The roots of female verbosity begin early. From toddlerhood, girls are faster to speak, form sentences, and build larger vocabularies. By adulthood, this verbal fluency often shows up not only in homes but also in boardrooms.
Yet not everyone finds the female fondness for dialogue endearing.
Global studies
Relationship expert John Gray, author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, surveyed 100,000 executives and found that 72 per cent of men believed women asked too many questions—often perceiving this as a delay tactic or even micromanagement. Women, however, viewed their questions as tools for collaboration, empathy, and driving better outcomes.
Global studies back the idea that women are generally more expressive. A survey spanning 58 countries found that in nearly every region- including Africa and East Asia – women consistently described themselves as more talkative than men. But the verdict isn’t unanimous.
Researchers from Northeastern University caution against sweeping generalizations. In social settings, especially among male friends, men can be just as loquacious -holding forth with gusto when the mood is right. In other words, context matters.
So, is the idea that “women talk too much” fact or fiction? The truth, as always, is layered. Yes, women tend to talk more – and now we know part of the reason why. But whether that’s a blessing or a burden depends entirely on who’s listening and what they choose to hear.
