Doing gender and building culture: Toward a model of women's intercultural communication

Abstract

The author proposes a model of women's intercultural communication and illustrates how it can be used as a heuristic tool through a case study. The “third‐culture building”; model is promising in that it extends the view of culture being constructed through communication to intercultural situations. The notion of gender as cultural practice is also promoted. These 2 perspectives are integrated into a model proposing that women participating in intercultural communication can be seen as engaging in a culture building process. This is inseparable from the gendered practices in which the women participate and the creation of gendered meanings that are shared among them. This culture building model can guide the analysis of intercultural communication events, as is shown through a study of introductions in international wives’ support groups, where participants attempt to create a shared personhood using gendered practices as resources of culture building.

Key words:

• culture building model
• ethnography of communication
• gender
• intercultural communication
• introductions
• personhood