Language and Gender: How Language Constructs Gender

LANGUAGE AND GENDER 1
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
by (Name)
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Professor
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LANGUAGE AND GENDER 2
• How does language construct gender?
2a. Research Questions
Define language.
What period does this research focus on?
What is the relationship between language and gender? Is it defined in terms of sexuality or are
there other determinants to consider?
What language were women supposed to use culturally? How were women and girls expected to
talk?
In what ways does the cultural perspective vary from the contemporary perspective?
What role did women play in language development? What vocabulary were they supposed to
use? Did they do anything that positively changed the broader language?
Points to consider:
Gender
Jargon
Double talk
Euphemism
Professional language
Language and gender variance
Gender-sensitive language

LANGUAGE AND GENDER 3
2b. Hypothetical Answers concerning the Research
The contemporary time is a period of sexual revolution. Today, women are increasingly
demanding inclusion in leadership and decision-making; and equality in employment and
education. Initially, women were expected to remain as home managers and mothers; during this
times, the society did not pay a lot of attention to the language used when addressing women. In
this traditional society, women voices against insults and euphemism were dismissed – their
complaints rarely appeared in news media and parliaments. The equality campaigns by the
United Nations somewhat liberated the public from male supremacy and female sexual passivity,
and the created platform was women complaints such as abuse and discrimination were
discussed in public.
In Chronicles, some women broke away from the social expectations of their families and
built professional and social movements for themselves. The groups included women from all
backgrounds; some were lawmakers, while others were artists. The movements empowered
women to push for the creation of gender-sensitive language policies. At the same time, men
organizations spoke in support of the gender-language issue. They acknowledged that
euphemism was wrong; and that both sexes deserved fair access to linguistic conventions and
vocabulary. During this time, international conventions such as the United Nations created
publications supporting women inclusion in controlling language at churches, schools,
legislatures, and publications. Today, the interaction between gender and language is fair: the
sexual difference in relation to language-use is small. The situation emanates from the fact that
language stereotypes have increasingly adopted a positive perspective. It is important to view
gender, not as the relationship between men and women but also involving transgender and more
specific same-sex or cross-sex interactions. In most cases, the vocabulary used to address both