Countering popular myths of women's deficiencies in communicating in traditionally male professions, the author uses women's talk to illustrate the interactional skills required to contribute effectively to workplace meetings, and presents new insights on the organization of talk in meetings while celebrating women's clear competence.

CECILIA E. FORD is Professor, College of Letters and Science, English Department and Women's Studies Program at University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. Her research focuses on language as an interactional phenomenon, drawing on conversation analysis as a framework for discovering the ways that humans construct, on a moment-by-moment basis, the social orders that make up our lives - including the provisional and emergent practices we call 'language'. Her research concentrates on turn taking and how humans collaborate and improvise in social interaction, using contingent practices including grammar, sound production, and physical orientations (gesture, gaze, body position).