Language and Gender

• It is believed women have a larger colour vocabulary than men. Robin Lakoff (1975) states this as a fact and suggests this is because in society women spend more time on colour related activities such as choosing clothes compared to men.
• Sex


  What you're biologically born as, based on organs
• Gender


  The behavioural characteristics, you identify with. Can be influenced by socialisation and cultural influences
• Julia Stanley (1977) complied similar inventories of words and found there were more words to positively describe men

  She also discovered 220 words for women who were sexually promiscuous and only 20 for sexually promiscuous males
• Lexical asymmetry


  The words are unequal in their associations and connotations

  E.g. Bachelor and Spinister
• Sex discrimination act, 1975

  It became illegal to write a job advert implying people of one sex could apply

  With some exceptions:

  • someone at a women's refuge, for women abused by men. Men could not work there for safety/avoid trauma
  • Religious reasons, some religions may believe only a particular gender is appropriate for a job
• Muriel Schultz (1975) argues that it's not an accident that there are more negative words to describe women. It represents the patriarchy in society. Words that are marked for females become pejorated

  In many western cultures, white middle class men are the most dominant groups. Historically, power has rested with men. This patriarchy has influenced language use.
• Sexist language in society

  1. Generic terms, man compounds - "chairman"
  2. Male association - doctor = man
  3. Titles - women; miss, Mrs, Ms. Men; Mr
  4. derogatory terms for women

  Schultz described the process of degrading women through words as the "semantic degradation of women"
• Linguistic strategies to counter sexist language..

  • Neutral compounding, chairman to chairperson
  • Gender neutral terms - "they"
  • order reversal - "she or he" , "women and men"
  • substitution, change words - flight attendant
• The dominance model by Zimmerman and West (1975) states that men are more likely to interrupt in a conversation.

  • They reported that in 11 conversations, men used 46 interruptions, but women only 2. They studied white, middle class people under 25 at California university. Men interrupt in order to show their dominance
• Dale Spender builds on the idea of the dominance model theory, she identifies the idea that men dominate women in language, representing the patriarchal society
• Problems with Zimmerman and West's research


  • Very small study, few people & few conversations
  • Didn't count interruptions with same gender conversations
  • Subjects were all young, white, middle class - very little variety
• Geoff Beattie criticised Zimmerman and West's research as he argued the reason men interrupted more was due to one dominant male in the group, disproportioning the study.

  Beattie questions whether interruptions necessarily reflect dominance? Some interruptions may just reflect interest and involvement
• Geoff Beattie recorded 10 hours of conversations containing 557 interruptions

  • found women and men interrupt pretty equally. Men 34.1 average and women 33.8 average interruptions.
  • Men interrupted more but to a very small extent

  Beattie's findings are not as widely used as Zimmerman and West's research, this is arguably because his research goes against what people already believe
• Obarr and Atkins challenged Lakoff's research on the dominance model,

  they wrote an article called "women's language or powerless language?". They studied the language of a courtroom and found female lawyers to be more assertive and interruptive

  They concluded these "weak" language traits Lakoff has said women use were actually "powerless language" rather than female language
• Robin Lakoff was a linguist who was the first to look at specially the relationship between gender and language

  She spent her life looking at social rules and how the ways people use language relates to their status

  She argued women's language use reflects their comparative lack of status compared to men

  Her most famous work "language and women's place" Combined elements of the dominant and deficit model
• Deficit model


  The language men use is the standard, so superior. The language women uses is viewed as insufficient and inferior as it differs from the norm
• The deficit model is attributed to Jespersen in 1922, he argued male language forms were the norm and women were deficient
• Lakoff claimed that women...

  • Speak less than men
  • Use fewer expletives
  • Use hyper correct grammar and clear annunciation
  • Use more polite forms
  • Apologise more
  • Don't tell or understand jokes as well as men
• Criticisms of Lakoff

  • didn't do research, ideas based off observations
  • generalised both genders
  • personally used introspection and arguably her research is more social commentary than empirical analysis
  • Claims represent the privileged society she observed and is a part of
  • 50 years ago, still valid today - arguably outdated as roles of women have changed and are now more equal
• Pamela Fishman (1983) looked at aspects of language linking to Lakoff's research, however, she came to very different conclusions:

  • Women ask more questions & more back channeling
  • Women do more conversation work, continue the conversation
  • women speak as they do as they are expected to appear inferior
• Fishman researched throughout the 1980s and found...

  • Women asked 3 times the number of questions men did
  • women used supportive/minimal noises to show interest, men used none
  • Women used phrases like "you know what" to get attention, men rarely used attention getters
  • Topics initiated by women were not always taken up in the conversation but when initiated by men were always successful and supported by women
• Lakoff argued tag questions represent uncertainty, Fishman said they are used to gain conversational power, start and continue conversations
• Janet Holmes (1984) explained Lakoff's ideas and claimed there were different types of tag questions:

  • Referential - signal uncertainty "you turn here, don't you?"
  • Facilitative - Encourage conversation "we love this, don't we?"
  • Affective softening - weakening a command "tidy this, won't you?
• Peter Trudgill (1977) said women are more socially insecure so are more careful to use overtly prestige language compared to men
• The difference model

  • Men and women are very different in society, they belong to different sub-cultures and preferences
  • This approach avoids "blaming" men for being dominant & avoids suggesting women speech is inferior
  • Men and women speak differently because they both have different aims in conversations, neither is worse than the other
• Deborah Tannen is a linguist born in 1945 who supported the difference model, she wrote many books about a variety of aspects of language use. Her most famous work was published in 1992, You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation
• Tannen suggested:

  • socialisation as a child influences their language. Parents use more emotional words for girls and more verbs to boys
  • Women's language style us based on the aim to build relationships - society's expectations
  • Men are set up for monologues
  • Women rapport (create bonds) whereas men report (just talk)
• Trudgill (1976) found that women tend to be more polite when speaking, using more politeness strategies such as hedges, intensifiers and mitigators.
• Mitigators = used to apologise or show regret e.g. 'sorry', 'actually'.
• Status vs support(Tannen)

  • For men, conversation is about appearing dominant
  • For women, talking is to gain confirmation and support for their ideas
• Independence vs intimacy(Tannen)

  • Men focus on being independent to gain status and feel powerful
  • Women want to show closeness and support to gain intimate relationships
• Understanding(Tannen)

  • Men want to find a solution for a problem
  • Women want sympathy, care and understanding
• Informative vs feelings (Tannen)

  • Men communicate more about facts and information
  • Women tend to be more open about what they think and feel
• Orders vs proposals(Tannen)


  • Men more likely to use imperatives
  • Women phrase things as questions
• Conflict vs compromise(Tannen)

  • Women more likely to agree to avoid conflict, even if they do not - this can cause resentment
  • Men are more ready for conflict
• Report vs rapport (Tannen)

  • Men, report talk - say it as it is
  • Women's, rapport talk - conversation to make connections
• The difference model suggests that there are no gender differences in terms of grammar, vocabulary or syntax but rather in how people choose to communicate with one another.
• Androcentric language is language that is male-centric and assumes that men are the norm. There are more negative words to describe women due to the patriarchy
• Criticisms of Tannen

  • Tannen's observations are largely anecdotal and can't be applied to all conversations, let alone mixed-gender interactions as a whole
  • Does she really address the issue of power?
  • All of Tannen's beliefs sound as if they stem from stereotypes