Today, women and men are more socially equal than in 1993, when Tannen wrote this short essay. Over the course of these twenty years, women have achieved many things in various fields that place them on the same level as men, presumably inferior. In my opinion there is no unmarked human being. You are marked simply by saying that you are male or female. Men are marked just like women are just a little more discreet. I believe that men are significantly scarred in areas where they are the minority. In Tannen's short essay he says, "A few years ago I was at a small business conference of four women and eight men." From the group we can deduce that men were the majority and women were the minority. There was also bias in the information he shared. This is why I thought Tannen moved towards women in his observation because they were the minority. When people represent a minority, they tend to be looked at differently and marked as such. For example, nursing and secretarial jobs are held by more women than men. When you see a nurse or a secretary, it is marked. He is the one among all the nurses who gets marked because he is the minority. It's vice versa for women too. For example in politics and construction, where men dominate those areas of work. You see a governor or a construction worker, you know she's marked because she's the minority in this