Language and power
Differences in language use may have more to do with power than with gender. For instance, some studies have shown that women who have more power adopt more "male-like" speech patterns. Joseph Scudder and Patricia Andrews manipulated the power equation between pairs of people artificially through a rigged scenario in which one person tries to sell a car to the other. The seller always had a backup position - an offer from a dealer - so the seller could always refuse the buyer's offer. In different scenarios, however, the dealer's offer was higher than others. The sellers with the higher backup option would, in principle, have more power in the negotiation with the private buyer and would not need to compromise as much to make a good profit. The sellers whose dealer offered the bare minimum had far less power.
These researchers analyzed the conversations between the sellers and buyers, watching especially for the use of direct or implied threats. The use of threats is certainly a power-oriented verbal strategy; people with little power are not likely to use that technique unless they are extremely good bluffers. In a bargaining situation like this one, a threat could surface as a statement like, "Unless you improve your offer, there is no deal." A less obvious example might be, "I have a good offer for the car now." The telling feature is that the person is threatening to wield power.
Their results support the notion that the power may be more important than gender when people choose their words. Both gender and power differences affected the use of threats, but power was more important. Women who were in positions of power used threats just about as often as the men did, and men who were in low power positions used fewer threats. Gender, though, was a key element in the kind of threats the people in the higher power positions used. The men were more likely to use direct and explicit threats, while the women seemed to prefer a bit more subtlety.
This study is especially intriguing because it highlights the situation and its effects on how humans behave in different settings, regardless of gender. It is always problematic to state that x, y, and z differences exist between the sexes when all of us are so influenced by the environment in which we are behaving.