basically what i mean is, i don't fault men for this. it's kind of encoded in them by the patterns they learn as very young boys acquiring language and social skills. and i believe that it's so unconscious that if a woman really were to assert herself, in most instances, the men would respect that and give her a voice (slight guilt might even result if the men realized the effort with which the woman had to get herself in there). the myth that women talk more has everything to do with their style of speech rather than the number of words they generate or the length of time they talk for. women take more frequent, quicker turns which might lead men (who are more prone to monologue-style speech) to perceive that a woman is talking a lot. also, women are more prone to spend words on emotional, kind of meta-conversational messages, like encouraging someone to come sit closer, or noticing a partner's reaction to something within the conversation.
An interesting expansion on the thought. It'd be interesting (and potentially useful) to quantify and distinguish the average number of words per conversation, or per day, or what have you, in the following cases:
1) woman one-on-one with another woman
2) man one-on-one with another man
3) woman one-on-one with a man, non-romantic partner
4) woman one-on-one with a man, romantic partner
5) woman in group of other women
6) woman in mixed group, 1 man, 2 or more women
7) woman in mixed group, 1 woman, 2 or more men
8) woman in mixed group, 2 or more women, 2 or more men
BTW I agree that women spend much more time on emotional, meta-conversational messages; but not *just* the immediate social cues you mention, but exploring, defining, enforcing social hierarchies within whichever group is extant at the moment. Men seem to spend much more time discussing ideas (e.g. politics), plans for an immediate or proposed project, or sports.