Young men and women were monaurally and dichotically presented with 10-word lists which had to be afterwards reproduced in a written form. In dichotic pairs the signals were presented either synchronously or with time leads/lags in 50 ms between the ears. For each subject the interference effect was calculated of the right hemisphere to the left one and on the contrary. This index was taken as a measure of inhibitory interaction between the hemispheres. Lateral differences in hemispheric interference were well pronounced in men and absent in women. In women the interference effects on the first halves of the lists were stronger than in men and more pronounced than the effects on the second halves of the lists. The results are in agreement with the ideas about functional dissimilarity of processes underlying speech functions in the left and right brain hemispheres in men and women.