Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
Language, Society and Power
Week 5 – Language and gender
Aims: To discuss if and how the English language can be considered sexist
To understand some of the differences between the speech of men and
women
To appreciate the possible reasons for these differences
What is gender?
The terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are often used interchangeably but the term ‘gender’ was
originally introduced to have a slightly different meaning to ‘sex’. In this way, ‘sex’
refers to biological differences whereas ‘gender’ refers to social differences. So for
example, the fact that men have lots of facial hair and women don’t is a sex difference
but the fact that women wear skirts and men don’t (in Western cultures) is a gender
difference.
1.1 Sexist Language
Sexism means that the sexes are represented unequally. Usually, we associate sexism
as a notion that represents women as being less able or skilled in some way than men.
1.1.1 Symmetry
One way in which English is sometimes considered to be sexist is in the asymmetry of
the vocabulary and how words are applied.
1.1.1.1 System of vocabulary
For example, the generic word for horses is “horse”, for male horses it is “stallion”
and for female’s “mare”. For humans however, the generic term and the term for
adult males in “man”. This creates asymmetry in the language as it possible for the
term “man” to be ambiguous. This is known as he-man language.
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
1.1.1.2 Names
It is often said that women do not really have their own names. They take their
father’s surname when they are born and their husband’s when they get married. Of
course many women now keep their own surname after marriage or take their
mother’s maiden name.
1.1.2 Use of Vocabulary
It is not only the words available in the language that may be considered to be sexist,
but also, how they are used. So for example, it is acceptable to call a female a “girl”
for much longer than it is acceptable to call a male a “boy”.
1.1.2.1 Titles
The use of titles is also asymmetrical. Men only use one title throughout their lives.
Women generally use Miss before they’re married and Mrs afterwards.
The use of
the title Ms is a recent introduction that was meant to end the inequality of the system
by not showing whether or not a woman was married. However, now it seems that
the use of your title also suggests political affiliations. Some people may think that
you are a feminist if you use Ms or anti feminist if you use Miss or Mrs. Some people
also think Ms is used for divorced women.
1.1.2.2 Marked terms
Some terms may make females seem to differ from the standard by adding a suffix to
words used to describe them.
Thus we have pairs such as actor/actress,
steward/stewardess.
Even words which can be used to refer to a person of either sex can be marked. So,
for example we may call a female doctor a “lady doctor”, suggesting that the norm is
a male doctor.
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
1.1.3 Semantic derogation
This refers to the process by which words may acquire negative connotations. In
terms of sexist language, we often find that words referring to women have undergone
this process. For example, we often find the term ‘lady’ used where a gender neutral
or male term is used if the job is done by a man. Therefore we have “dinner lady”,
“tea lady”, “lollipop lady” and “cleaning lady”. The equivalent male term “lord” has
not undergone this derogation.
The terms “master” and “mistress” and “sir” and “madam” are also unequal. The
male terms refer only to the power relations whilst the female terms also have sexual
connotations.
1.1.4 Insults and obscenities
In English we usually find that insults and obscene words are usually to do with parts
of the body or sexual behaviour. We usually also find that more of these terms relate
to women and in general are more offensive than equivalent terms for men.
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
1.2 Linguistic differences between men and women.
There are many well-researched differences between men’s and women’s speech, at
each level of linguistic analysis.
1.2.1 Levels of analysis
1.2.1.1 Phonetics and Phonology
Studies of Norwich English have found that in all social groups men and more likely
to say things like “walkin’” (a non-standard form) than women. This is also the case
for glottal stops in London English, where men are more likely to use a glottal stop in
words like “butter”, than women.
In terms of their intonation, women have a higher pitch in part because they have
smaller larynxes and smaller vocal folds. However, the physical differences are
probably not enough to explain the differences in pitch that are used. Women may
talk with a higher pitch in part to make them seem smaller than they are, and men may
use a lower pitch to make them seem bigger than they are.
1.2.1.2 Syntax
Similar differences are found in the use of grammatical forms. For example, in
Detroit English, men are more likely to use multiple negation (e.g. “I don’t want
none”) than women. In British English too, men and boys use more non standard
forms such as non-standard “–s” (e.g. “They calls me all the names under the sun”),
non-standard “has” (e.g. “you has to do what you’re told”), and non-standard “was”
(e.g. you was with me, wasn’t you?).
1.2.1.3 Discourse
It seems that despite the common stereotype, men talk more than women when in
mixed sex groups. There is also evidence to suggest that men interrupt women more
than they interrupt other men and also more than women interrupt men or other
women. Women give more back channel support, this is feedback which shows the
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
speaker they are being listened to. Women also use more modal forms (could, would,
should, might) than men. Women seem to talk more about personal, intimate topics
than men.
1.2.2 Possible explanations for differences
1.2.2.1 Use of standard forms
There are many explanations for why women use more standard forms than men.
The social status explanation states that men use more standard forms because they
are more status conscious than men. The idea is that women are more aware of how
their speech signals their status and therefore use more standard forms that are
associated with such status. There is some evidence to support this as women often
‘over report’ their usage of standard forms. However, it was originally claimed that
women without paid employment use the most standard forms as they can’t claim
status through their jobs. This claim has since been disproved.
The guardian explanation suggests that as society expects women to behave better
than men, they therefore use more standard forms. This explanation also draws on the
fact that women are most often the models for children’s speech.
However, most
analyses are of speech in interview settings, which we would expect to be more
standard, and not of the relaxed speech between mother and child, which we would
expect may contain fewer standard forms.
The politeness explanation suggests that women are subordinate in society and
therefore must be polite. However, it is difficult to see how standard forms relate to
the issues of politeness, as it is possible to be polite using the vernacular.
The machismo explanation seeks to explain men’s behaviour rather than women’s.
It is, after all, men who are more likely to use non-standard forms. This explanation
states that non-standard forms carry connotations of masculinity and toughness. This
may explain why women use fewer such forms and is supported by the fact that men
often over report their use of non-standard forms. However, this explanation does not
suggest why all speakers use more vernacular forms in informal settings.
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey – Roehampton
Language, Society and Power, Week 5
1.2.2.1 Discourse
The dominance explanation suggests that differences in the conversations of the
sexes occur because women have less power than men and speech reflects these
differences. This theory however, suggests that men demean women, who are just
powerless victims.
The difference explanation suggests that the sexes develop different speech styles
because of time spent in single sex groups as children and in adult life. Women’s
styles are based on cooperation and support whilst men’s are based on status. In
mixed sex groups the different styles clash leading to misunderstandings.
1.2.3 General problems with language and gender research
There are two main problems with much of the research on language and gender. One
is that often, we assume that all women and all men are the same and do not take into
account other important variables like age and ethnicity. A second is that often the
situation in which research is conducted is an unnatural one. Recent studies try to
address these issues by using new techniques and including other sociolinguistic
variables.