Susan Herring has conducted extensive research in the area of gendered communication patterns on computer-mediated discussion groups and espouses a difference paradigm, which suggests women and men embrace different behaviors and values in online discussion on listservs. Moreover, male discourse and male values are taken as the discursive norm, which serves to marginalize and exclude women.

Herring's research for "Posting in a different voice: Gender and ethics in computer-mediated communication" culminated in 1994, and her purpose involved the revelation of gender differences and inequalities in regard to discursive practices on the Net. She examined gendered behavior patterns on listservs, the values of listserv participants, and the discursive norms of netiquette guidelines. She triangulated her research methodology to do so.

Herring found that not only do men and women have different posting styles, but they also adhere to different values systems in regard to asynchronous communication in listservs. in addition, male values were presented as the discursive norm in all of the netiquette guidelines she examined, with the exception of a few women-centred groups. Herring suggests that the dominance of a minority of men in asynchronous communication forums leads to an environment that many women may perceive to be hostile.

Herrings difference paradigm seems to relate to cultural feminism, which suggests there are fundamental cultural differences between men and women. The weaknesses of her argument include the failure to sufficiently address human diversity, similarities between men and women, differences among women, and the fluidity of gender online. Given the rapid evolution of the Net, her research is also dated and doesn't take any synchronous forms of online communication into account. Nonetheless, Herring points out that online communication is not gender neutral. Despite growing numbers of women online, digital democracy has not been achieved. This continues to be challenged and will hopefully be changed.

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