To what extent is language use influenced by the gender of the speaker?

In the 1970s, it was suggested by theorists that patriarchal society had caused women to speak in a 'subordinated' way. Theorists like Lakoff argued that women often showed uncertainty and lack of confidence when speaking, such as by using tag questions: "We're going away tomorrow, aren't we?" The interrogative tag 'aren't we?' appears to imply the speaker's need for clarification, and a lack of confidence in their knowledge. Lakoff suggested that the use of this language was a result of male dominance over women throughout history. However, this theory of deficit in women's language was challenged by linguist Deborah Tannen in the 1980s, who believed that women's use of language was natural and innate, rather than a result of historical subordination. Tannen suggested that women used features of uncertainty in an attempt to cooperate better with the addressee. Men would use unmitigated directives - "Shut that door!" - while women would usually use hedges and the plural form to mitigate imperatives, for example in the utterance "Maybe we should shut the door?" It was therefore argued that women were inherently cooperative, and that this was reflected in their language use. On the other hand, he idea of 'innate cooperation' in women has been dismissed by some 21st century linguists. Gender is now seen as something more fluid, and therefore language use cannot be purely defined by whether the speaker is male or female. Lakoff and Tannen had suggested that women used more hyper-correct grammar than men. However, data has been collected of women using non-standard grammar such as the contraction 'ain't' within informal situations, and of groups of male friends using frequent tag questions and hedges such as 'I think' despite these being considered feminine speech features. The context of a conversation is therefore found to be more important in defining speech patterns than the gender of the speaker. Both women and men can choose to indicate uncertainty or cooperation in their speech. This view of gendered speech as being chosen by the speaker was argued by Judith Butler, who described gender as a 'scale' along which speakers could move according to contextual factors. Therefore, although gender may be an influencing factor, it is not the main factor that defines a speaker's language use.