Misinterpretations between people who are socialized into masculine speech communities and people who are socialized into feminine speech communities occur around the issue of showing support because:

Misunderstanding occurs among different gender communities when men and women discuss problems. For example, if a woman tells a man about something that is bothering her, he offers a practical solution in order to try and resolve the problem. However, our book tells us that feminine communities see communication as a way to build connections with others, so they often look for empathy and discussion about their feelings to occur before searching for a solution. This is problematic because women can feel that men's responses to their problems are uncaring. Men may feel frustrated when women offer empathy instead of advice for solving their problems. Different styles of listening are another example of interactions between men and women that may lead to misunderstanding. Women tend to make listening noises such as "mmhmm", "yeah", and "I know what you mean." Masculine communities tend to use less listening noises when listening to others. Feminine communities can interpret this as poor listening or not caring. "Gender is just one example of many speech communities. Communication patterns vary among people from different social groups, even if they live in the same society," according to Wood.

The following are the reasons: 
- manly speakers are attempting to influence a point and ladylike speakers to endeavor to upstage them 
- female speakers think manly speaker's narrating misses essential points of interest 
- manly speakers observe female speaker's narrating to meander and unfocused 
- female speakers need a coordinating of understanding and manly speakers give guidance