Gender and Language

to the cultural construction of male and female characteristics.
“The ways members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to behave.”

(what different cultures make of sex.)

discrete
since gender is culturally constructed the boundaries are conceptual rather than physical
the boundaries are dynamic, eg. now it is acceptable for men to wear earrings.
Boundaries require markers to indicate gender such as:

Voice
Physique
Dress
Behaviour

Hair style
Kinetics
Language use

to have traits of each category?

Gender identity

New York opera star who specialized in singing contralto "trouser roles."

Why is it important

social intercourse requires that the interacting parties know to which gender category `the other' belongs

expected ways of behaving based on society’s definition of masculine and feminine
Gender stereotypes:
oversimplified but strongly held ideas of the characteristics of men and women.
Gender stratification:
an unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in social hierarchy – a division in society where all members are hierarchically ranked according to gender
Gender ideology
A system of thoughts and values that legitimizes sex roles, statuses and customary behaviour

Gender roles:

the form of patriarchy whereby men dominate women

Do women in our society have a second class status relative to men?
If so How?
How do we measure gender stratification?

expected to be towards men.
Freedom to choose marriage partner, profession, and conception. Etc.

We can also look at the roles played by women and the value society places on them roles
Generally: Differential access to Wealth, Power, and Prestige

- genderlect? – Do they speak differently
Do women and men behave differently in conversations? – Use language differently
Gender bias in English

Men and women are socialized to express themselves in different ways in accordance with cultural norms that teach and reinforce differentiated gender roles

you give me the cup?
Give me the cup, won’t you
Can you give me the cup?
I can’t reach that cup
I want that cup
Can you get that cup for me?
I need that cup

THE CUP

peanut butter in the fridge again!

Men often use socially disfavored variants of sociolinguistic variables while women tend to avoid these in favor of socially more favored variants.

Genderlects

post-vocalic /-r/
“dis and dat”” “this and that”
Double negation single negation

Gender is a factor in the choice of variant

What motivates boys to choose /in/ and girls /ing/
/in/ form is used in informal settings and /ing/ in more formal contexts
The /ing/ variant therefore carries social meaning – i.e. it symbolizes formality
/ing/may also be associated with compliance and politeness

formality, politeness, compliance
with female
– go together

more than girls

use s wider range of pitches and more rapid shift in volume and velocity
In other words women talk melodically and faster than men who are more monotone and slower

Intonation

What does talking melodically and faster imply?
What does talking in a monotone and slower imply?

that when women use rising pitches they are interpreted as hesitant, uncertain, and lacking assertiveness

Melodically and faster - emotionality and natural impulses
Monotone and slower - control and restraint
This is a cultural interpretation
Which does our society value?
Masculine speech melodies can be heard to be metaphors for control
female speech melodies as uncontrolled
women’s speech behaviour is negatively evaluated in relation to male norms

Women’s frequent changes in pitch and volume may serve the function of attracting and holding the listeners attention

of the speaker, but to indicate concern for the addressee":
Open the door for me, could you?
His portraits are quite static by comparison, aren't they?
Affective tags are further subdivided into two kinds: softeners like the first example above, which conventionally mitigate the force of what would otherwise be an impolite demand
facilitative tags like the second example, which invite the listener to take a conversational turn to comment on the speaker's assertion.

Women use more tag questions than men

forms express machismo - men who act like women are strongly criticized, men consciously or unconsciously strive toward speech norms that reject styles associated with women ``Covert prestige`` (speaking white)
because women model their behaviour on middle class styles men covertly prefer “working class” speech
Women have less access to power and status: they ‘make up’ for this by their preferences for the prestige (standard) linguistic forms. This is thought to give them respect and some status.

Explanations for differences

them because they are judged by their social self-presentation and are aware of strong social sanction if they do not conform – linguistic insecurity
Women and men are socialized in different ways which is reflected in their language use patterns.
women may be more status conscious than men because:
society sets more standards for women and
Women’s typical activities do not confer status itself.
Women don`t want to use lower class language because of the associations made with lower class people
(8) Women and men have different networks which lead to women and men using different ways of speaking.
(9) many of the jobs available to women require standard form

Explanations for differences

questions
Men and women vary in frequencies with which they use – particular sounds (pronunciation), prosodic features (intonation, velocity) grammar and choices of vocabulary. i.e. women and men use have different styles of speaking (although for the most part we speak the same)
Linguistic and stylistic variations arise from, reflect and reinforce existing gender differences
Gender is an aspect of identity that is enacted through speech practices
careful speech by women reflects their position in a hierarchical system of gender in which they are culturally relegated to second place

supportive?

Do Men and Women Use Language Differently?

more than men
Proverbs:
A woman's tongue wags like a lamb's tail.
Foxes are all tail and women are all tongue.
The North Sea will sooner be found wanting in water than a woman be at a loss for a word.

St. Jerome in his Study, 1526

Describe the Picture?

Men took almost 4 times as long to describe painting by Durer as women
Why?
Perhaps because women are socialized to defer to men in thier speech
“talkative” women are women who talk as much as men
Because men have more rights to talk they are not seen as talkative
In real settings men tend to be more talkative

informal settings it was more equal

In discussions of emotion men talked less – were more silent
Why?
Is the unwillingness to talk a means to maintain and assert power?
By not talking men appear unemotional and rational – a good way to express control
By being silent men control the conversation – “play by my rules”

In emotional settings who talks more?

current speakers rights
Overlaps are errors in judgement in transitions and timing of next turn
The table indicates a male exercise of power

initiated Female initiated
Dyad 1 75% 25%
Dyad 2 100% 0%
Dyad 3 67% 33%
Dyad 4 83% 17%
Dyad 5 63% 37%

Demonstrates a clear inequality in the rights of men and women in conversation
Men use mechanisms of power and control in conversations with women
Interruptions prevent a person from expressing themselves fully and also allow for control of the topic
Do these sorts of interactions contribute to women’s subordaintion?

What do interruptions do?
What does this table demonstrate?

power relative to the men, men still organized the interaction so that they controlled the conversation
Men still interrupted more
Were more successful in introducing topics
When the women are in lower status positions they are even more vulnerable to lose control in conversations

Does Status outweigh gender?

twice as often by women
Asking questions – to maintain conversation since a response is required
Women asked more than twice as many
Asking “D’ya know what?” - a ritualized question designed to continue conversation – used more than twice as often by men
(Fishman 1983)

The efforts people make to maintain a conversation

it comes at the end of a speaker’s turn?
It takes the place of a turn and discourages further conversation and expresses no interest in speaker, provides no material to build further conversation on
What is the effect if it is placed within the current speaker’s turn?
Signals listener interest and encourages speaker to continue

Who Does more of What?

Women do more of the work of conversation

longer turns
interruptions: mainly by men
Silence (after speaker’s turn before addressee continues): women's silence far longer
back-channels: (e.g. um hmm, oh really?) women use more (supportive behaviour)
questions: 70 per cent by women, e.g. as a means for topic introduction ("D’ya know what?")
topics: men tried 29 times and succeed 28 times; women tried 47 times and succeeded 17 times
women talk to other women about family and interpersonal matters; while men talk to male friends about cars, sports, work, motorcycles, carpentry, and politics
women are more sensitive to social connotations of speech

(Tannen 1992: 75)

the way things are named
In societies where women’s roles are devalued inequalities in linguistic images are one sign of denigration
By continued use of words and expressions that demean women speakers unconsciously reproduce and reinforce negative stereotypes

and female
Father and Mother
Mr and Mrs

Order of linguistic terms reflects cognitive importance

Good and evil
Happy and sad
Rich and poor
Dominant subordinate

Bride and groom
Ladies and gentlemen
Mother and father

In formal polite contexts, or emotional contexts they may be reversed

Paired words also give positive connotations to the first word

wife

deriving girls names from male names

they) and man are sometimes used to refer to humans in general
-man used as a kind of suffix (Bolinger 1980, quoted by Graddol and Swann 1989: 103)

Sexism in the English language

Man

X

When he or man is used generically male images surface

- bitch (masc. = neutral term)
lion - lioness /tiger - tigress (masc. = neutral term)
actor - actress (fem. nowadays often avoided)
manager - manageress (fem. suggests lower status, e.g. of laundrette but not of bank)
Generally, masculine terms often unmarked in the sense that
it is the feminine term that takes an ending
only the masculine term can be used both for males and females.

Governess v Governor
Lady v Lord
Cow v Bull

the lexical bias reflects a social bias in the culture
What happens when you try to correct lexical bias?
Once alternatives have been offered, each speaker is faced with a choice of which form to use.

or pejorative meanings through time
What was the original meaning of these words?

Queen
Hussy
Spinster
Tart
Girl
Mistress
Wench
Whore
Harlot

Woman in charge of spinning
A young child of either sex
A lover of either sex
A fellow of either sex
housewife
Term of endearment for young women
a female sovereign ruler
a youthful female person;
a woman who has power, authority, or ownership

Semantic derogation/pejoration

Hillary giggles

In general words describing women’s activities have negative meaning