In her article Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why (PDF), Deborah Tannen, looks at linguistic styles and their affects on communication and relationships. In her research she claims that there is a difference between communication patterns of males and females, were men seems to focus on power dynamics and their place in the pecking order, while women seems to be more focused on protecting the placement of others.
Generalizations about genders is always risky, but her focus on linguistic differences is extremely important.