Women's Studies courses brought together many passions for me, and eventually led to my now being in an M.Ed. program in order to teach women's history at the college level. - Shirley Glines '00, interdisciplinary studies major, women's studies minor

Gender-Neutral Language

Sierra Prothers, 10/25/05

The English language is deeply rooted with words that have sexist connotations which lead those who speak the language to subconsciously categorize people by their gender. “The language that a cultures uses is telltale evidence of the values and beliefs of that culture.”(Nilsen 277). This leads me to think about the relationship and the impact that our language has on our society and culture. Does our sexist language contribute to or have a significant impact on how we think of men and women and is it necessary to have a gender neutral language in today's society? Our society should recognize and be concerned about our extremely gender-bias language and the growing impact that it is having on our society by perpetuating negative gender stereotypes.

What does it mean to have a gender-neutral language? Creating a gender-neutral language would mean that the terms we use would not specify a specific gender or it would be inclusive to both sexes. Gender-neutral terms would refer to “someone” rather then to just males or just females. A gender-specific language refers to one gender however in a non-sexist way. For example, a female business executive will be leading the meeting today. Because the example did not use busines sman it is not considered bias. As the article “Sexism in English: A 1990's Update” pointed out the English language is very much a gender-bias. This means that many of the terms that the English language uses are exclusive to a specific gender, most often females. Using such words support bias implications and imply irrelevant gender classification and negative stereotypes.

Commonly used gender-bias words often have “man” within them, for example policeman, fireman and mankind. These words classify a group of people as male even if the group consists of both females and males . They also suggest that males are superior to females by not being inclusive to both genders which lead to negative sexual connotations. Other examples of common gender-bias terms include.

Gender-Bias Term Gender-Neutral Term

Mankind Humankind

Policeman Police officer

Fireman Firefighter

Chairman Chairperson

Freshmen First year

Waiter/Waitress Server

Snowman Snowperson

Mailman Mail carrier

“You guys” “ya'll”

Businessman Business executive

Steward/Stewardess Flight attendant

Congressman Congressional representative

Salesman Salesperson/ Sales Clerk

Caveman Prehistoric people

Milkman Milk vender/carrier

Repairman Repairer/repairperson

Fisherman Fisher

Forman Boss/leader

First basemen First base player

Brotherhood Kinship

Manning Staffing

Manpower Workforce

Actress Actor

Security man Security officer

Cowboy Rancher

Gunman Shooter

Mountain man Mountaineer

Weatherman Meteorologist

Anchorperson News reporter

Masculine based words reinforce the idea that men are more powerful and have higher priority over women. A women's femininity becomes invisible when they accept being categorized by male gender-biased terms. It also means that women are only being recognized when classified in a masculine group. However can women truly be included or accepted as an equal to men? Within our society we know that even if women are categorized within male based terms it does not mean that men and women are treated as equals. If this were true, sexist connotations would no longer exist and we wouldn't be discussing the need for a gender-neutral language. Women are often referred to by the use of male base terms but if a male is referred to as female it is taken as an extreme insult. This is just another example that supports the fact that our language is sexist. It once again implies that males are the stronger more dominant sexual beings and females are the weaker more docile and insignificant gender. Some people feel as though women who are willing to be classified by male based terms do so just to feel included in a higher status? However there are very few commonly used gender-neutral terms that refer to women so therefore they have no choice as to how they are labeled. I think that if a woman can not be recognized by her appropriate gender in our own language then how can we expect women to be treated equally within our society? How are men and women ever going to be considered equal sexual beings when women still receive unequal salary and health care benefits and are seen as objects of lesser value? The English language is the starting point to the expansion of sexist stereotypes in our culture. I think because the gender-biased terms we use in our language are so ingrained in our minds the people who use sexist terms are necessarily sexist themselves. Very few people who use sexist words do so with bad intentions, it is just subconsciously done so. But we must ask ourselves if using such language will produce significant consequences within our society. In order to determine this you must also consider if language reflects or enhances sexism in our society. Sherryl Kleinman who wrote “Why Sexist Language Matters” believes that “language merely reflects reality and so we should ignore our words and work on changing our unequal gender arrangements that are reflected in our language.” Well this is a valid point and a popular opinion I believe that changing the structure of our language may alter our social practice but more likely will make people aware of the existing sexism in our language. This can be accomplished by replacing generic gender-bias terms with gender-neutral terms such as in the examples above. Why is it important to have a gender-neutral or gender-specific language? Because our language is so deeply rooted within our culture it affects the lyrics of songs and the words used in advertisements which perpetuate negative stereotypes. These negative stereotypes then influence how children interpret sex roles. Language is immediately shaping and determining what children learn are appropriate social expectations according to their gender. The gender stereotypes that are learned at a young age are reinforced by both our language and our culture which creates a continuous loop of negative gender stereotypes. According to Artz, Munger and Purdy “research indicates that sexist language, by itself, can produce negative consequences. Research indicates that it suggests superiority of the masculine over the feminine.” “it results in women being ignored, deprecated, or negatively stereotyped.” This research proves that our langue should be altered if we expected to change gender stereotypes in our society.

Sexism in the English language may be difficult to recognize at first because it is do embedded in our speech. Nevertheless sometimes it is the subtle forms of sexism such as language that contribute to the reinforcement and sustaining of gender stereotypes. Our concern about sexism in the English language should be focused on words that describe or categorized a group as a whole based on gender through its connotations. I'm not implying that the English language be completely re-written however written and verbal changes should be made by replacing gender-bias terms with gender-neutral terms. I believe this will ultimately help sustain the idea that women are not objects but equal sexual beings.

Bibliography

Artz, Nancy, Jeanne Munger, Warren Purdy. “Gender Issues in Advertising Language.” Women & Language. 22 (1999): 20-26.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lamson Library

Hardman, M.J. “The Sexist Circuits of English.” Humanist 56 (1996): 25-32.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lamson Library

Kleinman, Sherry. “Why Sexist Language Matters.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 25 (2002): 299-304.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lamson Library

Nielson, Allen P. “Sexism in English: A 1990s Update.” Reading Women's Lives.
Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005.

Sankis, Lizabeth M, Thomas A Widiger, Elizabeth M Corbitt. “Gender Bias in the English Language.” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 77 (1999): 1289-1295.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Lamson Library