Language and Gender

As I was unable to attend the lecture on Monday night, I read two articles that Mr. Robertson had based his presentation on. The first one being mostly statistics on women in the workplace and how evaluations by their superiors inhibit their success in promotions. It stated that statistically women are described as “helpful” or as “team players,” while men are more often referred to as “visionaries.” It is much more likely that the visionary would be promoted over the team player, any good leader knows that they need the team players doing the grunt work with the visionaries leading the team. These evaluations, while kind and supportive, are actually harmful in women’s success because they don’t focus on a woman’s personal accomplishments and vision, inhibiting her ability to get promoted.

The second article talks about how phrases like “freshman,” “chairman” and “you guys” are harmful to women. As a girl, I never thought any phrases ending in man were discriminatory towards women, or me. As these words are often pronounced with the ending “min” instead of “man,” I hardly ever noticed the implication that first years in high school were historically men or chairs were, and still are, often men. While I never felt that these phrases personally affected me, the article made it obvious to me that the underlying consequences of these issues affect myself and every other woman.

Growing up, my dad has always told me that he wants me to be a strong and powerful person. As I’ve gotten older, I resent that to be a strong and powerful woman means that men will probably call a bitch. I hope that as I get older more women will be referred to in their work evaluations as “visionaries,” or that the small change from “freshman,” to “first years” will reverse an effect that we didn’t even know it had. I hope that doing my best to be a strong woman will help the positive changes, and that I can contribute to strong women no longer being known as bitches.