Gender, Gender And Gender Bias

"Gender Stereotyping in the English Language" written by Laurel Richardson in 2003, Richardson argues people use the English language in such a way that limits, depreciates and ultimately dehumanizes women . Richardson develops and supports this theory by proposing the notion that historically, women have not only been limited by the terms used to describe them, but women are raised to think they must be confined to subservient jobs,  that customarily require less skill. Richardson's purpose through writing this article is to highlight an issue often overlooked, in order to promote the appropriate and equitable use of the English Language. The author intends for this principle to be turned into practice among women, men and children developing linguistic habits.

What is it that makes a woman a woman, or what makes a man a man? Deborah Tannen, author and Ph.D. of linguistics, investigates this question within the essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman.” An excerpt from a larger publication, “Talking from 9 to 5,” written in 1994, “There Is No Unmarked Woman” is an effective examination of the social injustice as to why the state of womanhood is “marked” while the state of manhood is “unmarked”, and what this means for each sex. The book itself is a result of real-life research about the conversational

“Sex Differences” is an essay written by a professor of linguistics named Ronald Macaulay. In the essay, he pointed out that there were no gender differences regarding to language development. He talked about various stereotypes about how men and women speak. He also explains in depth about how social environment made an impact on the talking between men and women. He also concluded that those linguists who still believe in that theory only continue to do so even if what they found in their research is not statistically significant. In many ways, Macaulay’s essay is persuasive. Through this essay, one would agree with him that there is no different form of language in which women and men speak.

Years later McConnell-Ginet (1989, as cited in McConnell-Ginet, 2011) began to study about language and gender in which it focused on speeches of men and women. Later in 2002, in investigating the characterisation of men and women in language, a study has been conducted that covered the sexism in language (Weatherall, 2002). Thus, the foundation of this research is based on the study of language and gender and its effect on

Deborah Tannen tackled this often glazed over topic in her essay “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently.” The essay primarily focuses around Tannen’s experiences

In origins of gender dichotomy of various adjectives and phrases is debated. Some, such as myself, believe that gendered expressions derive their meanings from the intentions of the speaker. Others, such as Mira Ramesh, believe that the interpretation of the listener is key in developing the gendered meanings of these phrases. While Ramesh makes some good points, many of her statements are one-sided and left unexplained or unanalyzed.

In the fourth session, Kristen Keen talks about gendered language choices and how they affect how people relate in the society. Power based violence and the tendency of blaming victims has been on the rise in the society. The theme of the session is “She’s such a slut! Analyzing our gendered language choices and their impact”. Kristen Keen agrees that there is an increasing gendered language that has both negative and positive connotations and can either have positive or negative effects on how people relate.

Gender bias, also known as sexism, is a full of attitudes, laws, taboos, preferences, and behaviors that differentiates and discriminates against either sex. These may be a position of which male dominance and female subjugation in the modern society. It could also be a form of sexual stereotypes between men and women, these are commonly experienced in employment versus other positions. A final place that discrimination is faced is the academic environment, the female to male ratios are not in sync in certain programs and courses because of this and it is pressuring men and women to not go into certain fields and do what they love and please. Most advertisements on Television, magazines, newspapers, online ad’s, use a charged sexually image with a female as the star. Women are to be a pleasure for men, and nothing else. Many people have different opinions on genders and sexuality and that is okay, but sometimes you just need to keep them to yourselves.

In the reading “You Are What You Say” by Robin Tolmach Lakoff. She talks about how women use a particular way of conveying a language. How women have to speak in a certain way or to speak on certain topics compared to men. The argument Lakoff gave was “How language is now build to make women “communicative cripples”. She then gave few examples base on everyday situation. Like lady like language should be use or how women are supposing to describe colors in a certain way or use tag questions. Lakoff future explains why these examples show how women aren’t powerful enough or are on equal level of importance than men.

Sowmya Rajendram identifies the definition of a bias as an inclination to hold a skewed or prejudiced opinion of something or someone and is either negative or positive. For example, the student that is the teacher’s pet never gets in trouble for anything or the same kid constantly getting in trouble in class. The definition of a gender bias however, is a little different. A gender bias in one of the many forms of a bias in our society today and it can be defined as believing a certain group (gender) is superior to the other and discriminating on the basis of this belief. Many people often form a set of assumptions as to what they believe a specific gender can and cannot do, which is not always necessarily fair.

Furthermore, the different usages of vocabulary in various languages construct the gender gap. For instance, “men who play theatrical roles are ‘actors’, whereas women are ‘actresses’”, and “handsome” is used for “a masculine adjective”; beautiful is used for a feminine adjective. (Carpenter 93). Therefore, Carpenter states that “the way we use and perceive language every day helps to construct and reinforce our divided, gendered, binocular vision of humankind” (93).

Gender and language initiate an approach to the study of language use and looks into relations between the meaning and gender. Christie provides a systematic introduction to pragmatic approaches explaining the rules of social language and how pragmatics can be realized be feminist analyses of language’s nature

Robin Lakoff found that women’s language lacks authority when compared to that used by men and she believes that women use many techniques in their speech that are deficient to men 's speech. In the Deficit Model Robin Lakoff describes male language as stronger, more prestigious and more desirable. She argues that women are socialised into behaving like 'ladies '. She gives examples of language techniques women use that make their language seem deficient these include, fillers, hedges e.g. “sort of”, “you know”, intensifiers e.g. “so”, weak expletive terms e.g. “oh dear”, empty adjectives e.g. charming, sweet, hypercorrect grammar and tag questions which shows uncertainty e.g. “isn’t it?” Moreover she interprets that women use more precise colour terms e.g. mauve, magneta.

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

Gender bias is unequal treatment in employment opportunity, such as promotion, pay, benefits, or privileges due to attitudes based on sex of an employee or group of employees. Gender bias can be a legitimate basis for a lawsuit under anti-discrimination statutes. Workplace gender bias not only attempts, but succeeds in several ways that people don't recognize for woman in male professions. Men automatically have an advantage over women when it comes to getting a certain job because several people view men as being more powerful, influential, and dominant than women in workplaces. Stereotypes have been embedded in our brains, and we tend to go along with them without even being aware of what we are doing. There's hope that citizens mindset can be changed if we take control of the normal, gender bias stereotypes before they get passed on to the next generation. Are you willing to treat everybody the same ? Every