One of the most common complaints I hear from women is that men don't listen. Be it at work where their good ideas are ignored or at home when their spouse totally forgets what she told him. Why can't men listen? They can, if you follow these five steps.

So the next time you want to talk to your male boss, be heard in a meeting, discuss an issue with your spouse, or connect with your teenage son, remember Renee's Rules…

1. Speak Loud Enough

Men don't hear as well as women. Honestly. It starts at birth and continues through life. This was … Read More

You've heard it from cohabitants time and again: living with someone means making major lifestyle compromises—relinquishing half the bed, the closet, the TV remote, etc. But what about the microscopic adjustments that catch a couple completely off-guard?

The Washington Post just posted this chuckle-worthy piece on the annual thermostat war waged between wives who appreciate the summery climate and husbands who believe in the power of the almighty air-conditioning. Read: 5 Things I Hate About My Marriage

"This is a real phenomenon," said Kathryn Sandberg, director of the Georgetown University Center for the Study of Sex Differences … Read More

Men and women evolved different brains over millions of years, because of necessity. Men chased down food for their families and provided protection. Women cared for the young and old, and provided a nurturing environment. Because of these different roles, the sexes evolved to process information differently, think in radically different ways, expect different things, and have different perceptions, beliefs and behaviors. In the last forty years, as the gender roles in our society have been blurred, both males and females have become more and more confused as to what is normal behavior. We expect our partners to be able … Read More

Are you receiving boring, non-inspired text messages from your crush? Blame it on his gender.

According to a new study, single ladies are better texters. Researchers at the Indiana University analyzed flirty text messages sent between singletons at a screening of the Italian version of TRL and found that the women's messages were more creative.

What, you may ask, makes a good text message? Getting close to the character limit, using abbreviations (abbrevs, for those in the know) and emoticons. Interesting—we always thought emoticons were for making sarcasm obvious—Hey Pete, that's a cute girl ur talkin 2 ;).

But once … Read More

In his column this week on The New York Times Frank Bruni wrote about gender-based customs and differences in restaurants. Even in the age of third-wave feminism and political correctness, some restaurants still observe rules like serving a woman first, taking the wine order from the man and giving the man the check.

Some of the rules have pretty much disappeared: giving a woman a menu without prices if she's there with a man, and seating a woman against the wall so she's facing out. I didn't know these were common customs, however I do prefer sitting facing out—doesn't … Read More

Call me obsessive, anal, rigid, or any other similar adjective, and you'll be right. I'm a Type A personality to the max. And that's not just based on opinion. As a young psychology student, I was subjected to all manner of personality tests, and they all agreed: I'm one uptight lady.

I love organization. I thrive on order. Unplanned events make my blood pressure rise and my heart race. My blouses, my towels and even my (folded) underwear are arranged by color (isn't everyone's?). I once made the mistake of confiding to a coworker that I liked my underwear to … Read More

I was mad at my husband. Boiling mad. And I wanted to get even. Dave was born during the great depression of 1982 and hates to waste money. He is the only 25 year old I know who reuses plastic sandwich bags. So, I got him where I knew it would hurt. I walked through the house and turned on every light in the house. Flashlights. Stove lights. Closet lights. Everything. And then I sat on the couch waited for him to notice. Over the next 20 minutes, my husband walked through the house slowly turning off every light. Then … Read More

"Women Think of Shopping as Much as Men Think of Sex!" screams a headline in yesterday's Daily Mail.

Hoo, boy. This is just about the most dubiously sourced piece of journalism

An online study -- or shall we say "study" -- at cosmopolitan.co.uk says that women think about buying a new outfit once every minute -- or put another way, 60 times each waking hour. This data comes from the responses of 74% of 778 women aged 19 to 45 at this 'online fashion bible' web site. In other words, that's 575 self-selected women. … Read More

Husband and wife team Dr. Walt Larimore and Barbara have teamed up to contrast men and women, brain-wise, His Brain, Her Brain. But rather than simply pointing out the differences, the Larimores offer strategies to use each other’s strengths in tandem. For instance, they say that men act, while women brew. The authors suggest keeping this in mind when beginning a conversation—and preventing it from becoming an argument--e.g., letting him move forward on a small aspect of a larger issue or letting her think things through before making a huge, final decision. Makes sense, right?