Gender Discrimination In Language Essay

1017 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Sex discrimination in daily life

As a society evolves and changes, its language mutates and conforms to changing needs. Words form to define new things, archaic terms drop from use, and meanings change as different usages develop. The English language is grammatically neutral in classifying objects by sex. It is unusual among Indo-European languages in that it does not impose gender on inanimate objects. One might think that freedom from arbitrarily enforced gender would provide a clear and impartial palette for blending mere words into meaningful communication, to the contentment of all. One would be wrong. Perhaps he would be mistaken. Possibly, she would be erroneous. Perchance, they would be wide of the mark. The dilemma of gender-bias appeared in the nineteenth century …show more content…

Women gained access to a wider variety of educational and vocational opportunities and have since progressively entered an expanding variety of nontraditional roles in society. One natural result of knowledge is clarity. As the state of oppression became clear, womankind began a campaign to end gender discrimination, in word as well as action. Feminism, coined in 1851 gave the movement for women’s equality a name. The continually multiplying list of vocations of positions in business, and politics profoundly affected interpersonal vernacular. Customary references to women began acquiring less desirable connotations. Lady and madam, for example, long used as honorific titles or to describe a woman of high birth or particularly good manners, became synonymous with prostitution. Dissatisfied with inequality in parlance, the Women’s Rights movement set out to eliminate gender-bias. Definitions of gender-bias and gender neutrality are equal to the number of experts on the topic. Mary Vetterling-Braggins zealously defines gender-bias as any language whose "Use creates, constitutes, promotes, or exploits an unfair or irrelevant distinction between the sexes" (3). A simpler and more hospitable definition is found at the very edge of …show more content…

"Language Practices and Self Definition: The Case of Gender Identity Acquisition." Sociological Quarterly. 27.3 (1986): 295-311. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. <199.80.13.79>.
“Gender Neutrality." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. , 12 02 2014. Web. 20 March 2014. <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality>.
Post, Emily. "Woman or Lady Issue." Spokesman-Review [Spokane WA] 26 01 1938, morning 27. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Prosenjak, Nancy, Mary Harmon, Sue Johnson, Pat Bloodgood, and Lisa Hazlett. " Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language." National Council of Teachers of English. NCTE, n.d. Web. 24 Mar 2014.
Sadker, Myra, and David Sadker. Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2010. 13 April 2014 <http://books.google.com/books ?id=pCh33K9T8xIC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
Teneva, Sylvia. "Gender Bias." Forum For Across Curriculum Teaching. FACTWorld, 30 09 2011. Web. 16 Mar 2014.
Twenge, Jean, W Campbell, and Brittany Gentile. "Male and Female Pronoun Use in U.S. Books Reflects Women's Status, 1900-2008." Sex Roles. 67.9.10 (2012): 488-493. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <SocINDEX with Full Text>.
Vetterling-Braggin, Mary. Sexist Language: A Modern Philosophical Analysis. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of In Praise Of The F Word By Mary Jar

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Mary Sherry discusses the corrupt school system that lingers. In her article, we obtain insight on how schools

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Little House on the Prairie

    2315 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education." Review of Research in Education 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

    Read More

  • The English Language Systematically Degrades and Devalues Women

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... e they are so firmly embedded in the everyday language used by society. However, the ‘politically-correct’ era is dawning on Britain at present, and the public is becoming more aware of sexist speech as well as lexis that discriminates other groups of people. Gender-specific words are being discouraged by Government campaigns, even altering the curriculum so that young children are taught to refer to ‘police officers’ and ‘firefighters’ instead of ‘policemen’ and ‘firemen’.

    Read More

  • Gender: Annotated Bibliography

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.

    Read More

  • Language, Gender, and Culture in Society

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.

    Read More

  • Abigail Adams Gender Roles

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the span of history, gender is defined as the difference between masculinity and femininity of both male and female. By examining the context of history, ‘gender role” which consist of men and women shows us how society differentiate certain behaviors as proper or atypical for men and women. In the nineteenth century, gender was a big issue. Whether you are male or a female, just by being one or the other determines how you will live your life. It was the time when the impact of the industrial revolution caused a acute distinction between the two gender roles, mainly consist of the middle and upper classes. Both men and women were assumed to have two completely different personalities. Men believed they were much more suited to

    Read More

  • Analysis Of There Is No Unmarked Woman

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    Deborah Tannen’s essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, explores the idea of “marked” and “unmarked” words, styles, titles, and how females have no ability to choose an unmarked position in life. She posits that “The unmarked forms of most English words also convey ‘male’” (88). Tannen is incorrect in her premises because females are able to choose unmarked hair and clothing styles, men are marked just as often as women, and many unmarked forms of words no longer convey “male.”

    Read More

  • Alleen Pace Nilsen's View of Sexism in English

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nilsen began this study of the dictionary not with the intention of prescribing language change but simply to see what the language would reveal about sexism to her. Sexism is not something that existing independently in American English or in the particular dictionary that she happened to read. Rather it exists in people's minds.

    Read More

  • Women as a Minority Group

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even after these prejudices were overcome, the education system still maintained sexism in both obvious and subtle ways. Books rein...

    Read More

  • Sexist Slurs

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sexist language can be described as any language that confers a higher value or greater significance to one type of gender and devalues the other. Sexist language is usually used to stereotype, subordinate or trivialize onesex. More often than not they are mostly used against women or describing women and rarely are they used against men. Hence the rise of feminism to advocate the rights of women. The purpose of this paper is to outline how the use of sexist language such the boys has been used to control how women think and make them want to be associated with the bigger sex “male.”

    Read More

  • A Woman’s Role in a Patriarchal Society

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries, a series of events occurred that would be known as the feminist movement. During this time, many women were starting to change the way they thought of themselves and wanted to change their social roles. In his views on feminist analysis Donald Hall says, “Feminist methodologies focus on gender.and explore the complex ways in which women have been denied social power and the right to various forms of self-expression. In this context the many perspectives that fall under the heading ‘feminism’ vary wildly”(Hall 199). Since women were denied social power and self-expression, they went against what society saw as acceptable, a patriarchal world.

    Read More

  • Gender Bias In Language

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    Language is a very powerful element. It is the most common method of communication. Yet it is often misunderstood an misinterpreted, for language is a very complicated mechanism with a great deal of nuance. There are times when in conversation with another individual, that we must take into account the person's linguistic genealogy. There are people who use language that would be considered prejudicial or biased in use. But the question that is raised is in regard to language usage: is the language the cause of the bias or is it reflective of the preexisting bias that the user holds?

    Read More

  • Words: The Definition Of A Woman

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word “woman” originally came from the word “wife”. The word’s general definition is a term used to describe a human female; this is known as a word’s denotation. Because of its reputation, the word has been seen in the idiom, “Be one’s own woman”. This expression is meant to encourage people, especially females, to be confident and independent. Although formerly “woman” was at times regarded to as demeaning, while “lady” was the indication of courtesy, the word “woman” is the appellative preferred by most modern females.

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Gender and Language

    1996 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book An Intorduction of Sociolinguistics is an outstanding introductary book in the field of sociolinguistics. It encompasses a wide range of language issues. In chapter 13, Wardhaugh provides a good insight to the relationship between language and gender. He explains gender differences of language-in-use with concise examples. Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies.

    Read More

  • Equality Between Men and Women

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Seligson, Susan. "Debunking Myth That Girls and Boys Learn Differently: COM prof’s book challenges “toxic” stereotypes." BU Today. 10 Jun 2011: n. page. Print. (JUXTAPOSITION)

    Read More

More about Gender Discrimination In Language Essay

Open Document