LANGUAGE,
GENDER,
AND INEQUALITIES
GLOBAL INEQUALITIES
1. GLOBAL WEALTH
• The 80 richest individuals in the world own as
much wealth as 50% of the worlds population,
according to OXFAM, and this is getting worse
• By 2016 OXFAM predicts that the richest 1% in
the world will have more wealth than the
remaining 99%.
2. UK
• The 100 richest individuals in the UK have the
same wealth as 30% of all UK households.
GENDER INEQUALITIES
Gender inequalities
- less in the news
1
2
3
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5
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THE GENDER GAP
• The World Economic Forum publishes an
annual Global Gender Gap Report that ranks
countries by their gender performance.
• Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden are
ranked the best countries for gender equality.
• Since 2006 the UK has dropped from 9th to
26th place globally in terms of gender equality.
GENDER INEQUALITIES
In the UK today:
• who looks after children? who does the housework?
[women still undertake two-thirds of unpaid work in home]
• who gets the top jobs?
[the majority - 70% - of the top 10% of earners are men]
• who earns the least?
[the majority – 62% - of workers paid less than the living wage are
women]
• who gets to represent us in Parliament?
[77% of MPs are male – UK comes 64th in world rankings]
• how many FTSE bosses are women?
[only 5 of the top 100 FTSE bosses are women]
• what about newspaper editors?
[only 1 female editor of a national paper]
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
FOCUS TODAY:
What part does language play in creating
and maintaining gender inequalities?
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
3 different areas where I would argue that
language plays a major part in sustaining
inequalities between women and men:
1. talk in the workplace/classroom/family – do
male speakers dominate?
2. dominant discourses of masculinity and
femininity
3. the English language itself – does it encode
sexism?
CONVERSATIONAL DOMINANCE
• ‘Conversational dominance’ is the phrase
used to refer to the phenomenon of a speaker
dominating others in interaction.
• Research focusing on mixed talk in a variety of
social contexts has revealed asymmetrical
patterns, with men's greater usage of certain
strategies being associated with male
dominance in conversation.
CONVERSATIONAL DOMINANCE
STRATEGIES:
• Interruptions (grabbing the floor)
• Talking too much (hogging the floor)
• Non-cooperation
SOME EXAMPLES – INTERRUPTIONS
2. ANNA: wild rice is nice/ you’ve never tasted it [so ((xx))
BILL: [well the Indians don’t eat it so why the bloody hell
should you?
3. PETER:what has your section done in this area
for instance?
JUDITH: well we have begun thinking about it/
we've been holding regular review
JUDITH: [sessions onPETER: [it'll take a lot more than that I can tell you/ this is
a
serious matter/
[from Holmes 1995:51]
MORE EXAMPLES
(4)
Male:
the way he starts the meeting is he comes in and he blathers for about
two minutes in Irish, err Scots Gaelic, and then he turns round and says
to them 'do you repeat?' =
Female 1: =mhm
Male:
err and then asks "what is that?", err, and then somebody will say 'Irish'
and he'll say 'oh very clever' and then go on from that =
Female 1: =mhm
Male:
so you won't have missed much=
Female 1: =no
(Woods 1989: 155-6)
(5)
Mary:
I’ve got this all figured out (3) I talked to Doyle today? (4) and (4) you
know explained to him the fact that you know, come April I’ll probably
have to (1) ahm (.)
Bud:
Excuse me, open the back door, I’m gonna give this to ((the dogs)) (8)
Mary:
I’ll probably have to terminate my appointment
[DeFrancisco 2011: 157]
CONVERSATIONAL DOMINANCE
Research on conversational dominance:
• in the classroom (e.g. Swann 2011)
• at the doctor’s (e.g. West 1990)
• in police stations (e.g. Ostermann 2003)
• in law courts (e.g. Ehrlich 2006)
• in Parliament (e.g. Shaw 2006)
• in the workplace (e.g. Holmes 2006; Mullany 2007)
• in internet chat rooms (e.g. Herring et al 2011)
• in the home –
heterosexual couples (e.g. De Francisco 2011);
families at mealtimes (e.g. Ochs & Taylor 1995)
SUMMARY
‘Women still struggle for acceptance within
institutional settings such as government,
politics, law, education, the church, the
media and the business world.’
(Judith Baxter ‘Introduction’ in Speaking Out:
The Female Voice in Public Contexts, 2006: xiv)
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
3 areas where language plays a major part in
sustaining inequalities between women and
men:
1. tendency for male speakers to dominate in
talk in the workplace/classroom/family etc.
2. dominant discourses of masculinity and
femininity
3. the English language itself – does it encode
sexism?
DISCOURSE
Idea of ‘a language’ a useful fiction –
no such thing as ‘the English language’ –
instead, what we refer to as ‘the English language’
is more accurately a heterogeneous collection
of competing discourses.
A discourse can be defined as ‘a way of speaking
associated with a particular worldview’, for example:
• conservative (with a small <c>)
• feminist
COMPETING DISCOURSES
• Different discourses position us in different ways in
relation to the world.
• Dominant discourses have a key role to play in
reproducing everyday taken-for-granted norms.
• Gender an area where different discourses compete –
dominant discourses of masculinity and femininity vie
with alternative discourses of masculinity and
femininity.
DISCOURSES OF MASCULINITY
HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY
Dominant discourses of masculinity position boys
and men as:
• strong
• brave
• active
• heroic
• successful
• competitive
• technologically able
HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY
(6) [Julian tells a story of a sporting triumph]
so I took it on the half-volley, and it just went flying, […] and it was
just the most beautiful ball I've ever ever ever seen <EMPHATIC>
(7) [Rob tells his friends about a fight at work]
what he did was he threw this knife at me, this is honest truth,
threw a knife at me, and then- and there was this cable […] he
fucking chased me with it, and I thought "Fuck this", and he kept
like having a go and teasing me, and I just smashed him straight
round the face with a bell box in front of the boss
(8) [Michael tells Bill about buying wine in Cornwall]
we went to an inn in Cornwall which had a most impressive display
of bottles on the wall [mhm] so we had a meal there and got
chatting to the owner cos I thought his wine was very good […] so
er- paradoxically I’ve ordered four cases of wine from Cornwall
ALTERNATIVE MASCULINITIES
(9) [four men friends in a flat in Manchester talking
about a friend whose girlfriend had been unfaithful]
Dave: fucking 'ell, harsh that…
Chaz: bit harsh that, innit?
Dave: yeah, it's a bit heavy innit?
George: blues big time
Ewan: I'd be fucking gutted…
[Gough & Edwards 1998: 419]
ALTERNATIVE MASCULINITIES
TONY: I think it's because I decided that- . that (1.0)
I ((really)) didn't like this way of relating to
people very much and that . life actually would
be . improved by . people being more open with
each other . not that I'm . brilliant at it <QUIET LAUGH>
PETE: makes you vulnerable though don't you think? .
um don't- don't you feel vulnerable? . sometimes?
TONY: yeah but . I suppose that . that's a useful reminder
really isn't it ((I mean)) vulnerability is er- (1.0) all
the- all the- the- the masks and so on are supposed
to keep vulnerability at bay but . .hh they only do
this at a very high cost
DISCOURSES OF FEMININITY
Dominant discourses of femininity position women
and girls as:
• caring
• sensitive
• emotional
• cooperative
• passive
• gentle
• weak
• concerned about appearance
(11) [Sarah tries on some of Gwen's make-up]
GWEN: doesn't she look really nice?
KATE: yes
EMILY: she DOES look nice
KATE: you should wear make-up more often . Sarah
(12) [topic = new sundress]
KAREN: you’ll look at yourself in the mirror and you’ll think
“God I look fat”
(13) [Anna arrives from work late and explains why she is upset]
ANNA: I just had such a bad week and then my boss just stood in the
office tonight and told me and his deputy that we're both crap
managers basically [SUE: oh/ LIZ: oh god/ ] (…)
I get so angry at myself for crying/
COMPETING DISCOURSES OF
FEMININITY
(14) [topic = end of term school plays]
KAREN:
PAT:
KAREN:
PAT:
did Peter do his song?
yes/
was he good?
he was marvellous/ he was
marvellous/ every kid in it
was marvellous/
KAREN: oh they- I think they always
are/
COMPETING DISCOURSES OF
FEMININITY
(15) [3 women friends have been talking about a family
they all know with ‘ghastly children’]
LIZ:
I think it's a- . a fallacy as
well that you like every child/
SUE: mhm/
LIZ: cos you don't/
ANNA: no/ . that's right/
SUE: I still quite often don't like
children/ <LAUGHS>
ANNA: <LAUGHS>
LIZ: actually I think you
particularly
dislike your own/
IMPACT OF
DOMINANT DISCOURSES OF GENDER
• pressure on boys to be brave; strong; heroic;
active; not emotional; etc.
• pressure on girls to be gentle; caring;
sensitive; “nice”; weak; etc.
• difficult to challenge or resist the dominant
discourses: boys get accused of being ‘gay’;
girls get told off for being ‘unladylike’.
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
3 areas where language plays a major part in
sustaining inequalities between women and
men:
1. tendency for male speakers to dominate in
talk in the workplace/classroom/family etc.
2. dominant discourses of masculinity and
femininity
3. the English language itself – does it encode
sexism?
IS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SEXIST?
• Every language is different and each language
encodes the world around it depending on what
is seen as important by society.
• But in a non-sexist language we would expect to
find symmetry in the lexicon for sex and gender.
• So we find lexical sets such as:
sheep-ewe-ram-lamb;
or horse–mare–stallion-foal.
• BUT for human beings??
ASYMMETRY IN THE LEXICON
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
man vs. woman – lady – girl
Mr. vs. Mrs. – Miss – Ms.
bloke – guy – fellow – chap – dude etc.
slag – slut - cow – whore etc.
effeminate; virile; emasculate.
THE PRONOUN ‘HE’
Ideas of Correctness
- legacy of 18th century prescriptivism
Debate over 3rd person singular gender-neutral pronoun:
i) Somebody knocked at the door but they had gone
when I got downstairs.
ii) Somebody knocked at the door but he had gone when I
got downstairs.
iii) Somebody knocked at the door, but he or she had
gone when I got downstairs.
Singular THEY
• “Eche of them sholde … make theymselfe
redy.” Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (c. 1489)
• ‘If a person is born of a … gloomy temper …
they cannot help it.’ Lord Chesterfield Letter to
his Son (1759).
• “I would have every body marry if they can do
it properly.” Jane Austen Mansfield Park
(1814).
CONFUSED USAGE
Homework for a 6 year old child
[Source: Guardian G2 24/02/14]
Find out about an inventor.
• Who was he?
• How old were they when they began
inventing?
• Did they have a wife and family?
MAN as a false generic
‘Man’ was the Anglo-Saxon word for ‘person’, as
distinct from ‘wif-mann’ and ‘wer-mann’.
Modern word ‘man’ ambiguous:
- the rich cannot appreciate the impact of inflation
on the average working man.
- the average working man earns almost twice as
much as the average working woman.
February 2015, BBC Radio 4, announcement of
the discovery of “the strongest material known
to man”.
SEXIST MORPHOLOGY?
waiter
manager
governor
actor
steward
host
god
duke
-
waitress
manageress
governess
actress
stewardess
hostess
goddess
duchess
‘Being called a “poetess” brings out the terroristress in me’
(Adrienne Rich)
(see also nouns ending –ette: e.g. usherette; majorette;
suffragette; leatherette; kitchenette)
SEMANTIC DETERIORATION
Muriel Schulz (1975: 65): ‘ Again and again in the
history of the language, one finds that a perfectly
innocent term designating girls or women may begin
with totally neutral or even positive connotations, but
that gradually it acquires negative implications…’.
COMPARE these pairs of words:
• master - mistress
• bachelor - spinster
• Lord – Lady
• buddy – sissy
ANDROCENTRISM
DEFINITION of androcentrism:
• centred on, emphasizing or dominated by
males or masculine interests.
[literally means ‘male-centred’ from Greek andros
=
male human being]
• If a society is androcentric, then inevitably the
language will reflect and reproduce that.
• opposite of androcentrism is gynocentrism.
FEMINIST REFORMS
•
•
•
•
•
Ms.
chairwoman/chairperson/chair
firefighter; police officer
sexism; sexual harassment; sisterhood
s/he; singular ‘they’
FEMINIST DICTIONARIES
1. Cheris Kramarae & Paula Treichler Amazons,
Bluestockings and Crones: A Feminist Dictionary
(Pandora Press: 1992)
2. Mary Daly Webster's Intergalactic Wickedary of
the English Language (Women’s Press: 1988).
3. Jane Mills Woman Words. A Vocabulary of
Culture and Patriarchal Society (Longman: 1989).
‘It is clear to me that until very recently dictionary
definitions largely reflected male rather than female
experience and language-use.’
IN CONCLUSION …
Language is implicated in the continuing
inequalities between women and men:
(i)
tendency for male speakers to
dominate in mixed-sex talk;
ii)
speakers are positioned by
dominant discourses of
masculinity and femininity;
iii) the English language itself is
androcentric.
FEMINIST DICTIONARIES
Mary Daly Webster's Intergalactic Wickedary of the
English Language (Women’s Press: 1988).
Invented words such as ‘gyn-affection’ and ‘gyn-ecology’.
Played with words like CRONE (e.g. chronology; synCRONE-icities) and HAG (e.g. hagography = ‘the history of
women who are on the Journey of radical be-ing’).
3. Jane Mills Woman Words. A Vocabulary of Culture and
Patriarchal Society (Longman: 1989).
‘It is clear to me that until very recently dictionary
definitions largely reflected male rather than female
experience and language-use.’
FEMINIST DICTIONARIES
1. Kramarae & Treichler A Feminist Dictionary (1985)
‘Dictionary’: ‘Women’s dictionaries … offer more than an
alternative lexicon; they call attention to the ways language
functions in the world’.
‘spinster’: ‘figures of fun and ridicule to those men who see
themselves as essential to a woman’s existence’.
‘fat’: ‘When used to describe adult women, is an ultimate
pejorative, meaning that they are larger than fashion dictates
they ought to be, and implying they are undisciplined, lazy, out
of control …’
‘sisterhood’ – one definition is ‘A discovery of shared
oppression’.
SUBVERSIVE FICTION
Suzette Haden Elgin Native Tongue (1985)
Explores the creation of a new gynocentric language in a future
world where ‘The male reigns supreme, the women’s movement
is crushed and women are barred from all power’.
See wonderful appendix with examples such as:
radiidin = non-holiday (such as christmas).
ralorolo = non-thunder, much talk and commotion from one
with no real knowledge of what they’re talking about.
rarilh – to deliberately refrain from recording; for example, the
failure throughout history to record the accomplishments of
women.
[NB ra- is a negative prefix]
SEMANTIC DETERIORATION
Muriel Schulz (1975: 65); ‘ Again and again in the history of the
language, one finds that a perfectly innocent term designating
girls or women may begin with totally neutral or even positive
connotations, but that gradually it acquires negative
implications…’.
hussy = housewife  ‘a lewd woman or prostitute’
harridan = ‘worn out horse’  a disagreeable old woman 
a decayed strumpet
wench: OE wencel = child, servant  ME wenche = girl, young
woman  end of 13th C = wanton/lewd woman
hag = witch  ugly old woman  prostitute