Consultation and Training

TREM Questions and Answers

Q: There is significant variation in the amount of verbal participation of the women in our group. Two women are particularly dominant, and one woman hardly ever speaks. What, if anything, should we do about this?

A: Such variation in participation is quite common. In order to decide what to do, ask yourself several questions: Are the most verbal participants on target with the topic of discussion or do they get into tangential comments? Do you think the most verbal participants are inhibiting quieter women from participating? What happens when one or both of the most verbal women are not present for a session? Does the quiet woman appear to be following the group content, and what is her participation like during movement or artistic exercises? Some women who have been fairly quiet throughout TREM groups at Community Connections have told leaders they benefited greatly from the group, and we're relieved that they could attend and stay quiet. You could try to curb the participation of the most verbal woman and simultaneously make room for/ invite the quiet woman to speak with a comment such as, "Diane, I'm going to ask you to hold on a minute so we can see if Sara or anyone else has thoughts they would like to share about this."