Gender and Language

How a person uses language can be affected by their age, culture, niche, and gender. From an early age children are observed using "genderlects" when they speak, which starts as young as 2nd grade, and carries on affecting the children into their adulthood. Girls in particular are somewhat oppressed with these genderlects, because they limit the power girls have. When Shelia McAuliffe observed class of second graders and their writings, she found ample evidence of a clear gender divide. Girls wrote about community and solving problems together, while boys wrote heroic tales of conquering and power. Boys feel comfortable boasting about their accomplishments and always have a male as the protagonist, while girls don't feel comfortable with the egocentric language and steer towards teamwork. This sense of girls as community figures, instead of individual capable humans, carries on to the work place. In the Business Insider article, Stanford gathered comments of women in the office compared to men. Women were again complimented for their strong sense of community and team work, while men were praised for their individual accomplishments. This use of language suggests that women do not have the power to step up and achieve personal accomplishments, and therefore have to do it as a team. The issue of language and gender also appears in the dictionary. The argument between whether dictionaries should be more proscriptive or descriptive effects how words are used with women. In a descriptive dictionary, the word "shrill" could be described as a women's voice, therefore implying that women's voices are unpleasant. Genderlects have always been apparent in our language, but we can work to make them less derogatory. In weddings the minister used to pronounce the bride and groom "man and wife", implying that the wife was the man's property, until it finally changed to a more equal "husband and wife". By giving girls language that they can use to express their own personal endeavors, we can empower them at a young age. By giving girls examples of strong successful women who use language to show strength and independence, maybe we can expand their vocabulary past the gender bounds. In todays polarized society, genderlects can become even more divided, but by expanding the vocabulary people use for girls we can fix it. I hope that someday girls will not feel the bounds of genderlects when trying to communicate their hopes and dreams.