Gender-fair Language Research Articles

Language Codes, Topic Preferences and Identity Construction: The Case of Gendered Language on Social Media

This study on exploring the use of gendered language on social media is a qualitative-quantitative analysis of the male and female differences in the language codes, topic preferences, and identity construction. In-depth understanding of the gendered use of language in Facebook was investigated with a purposive sampling of 90 status updates taken from the posts of respondents who are enrolled in one of the premier public high schools in Cagayan Valley. Anchored on Thematic Analysis by Braun and Clarke (2006), the language codes, topic preferences and gender-based identity construction were explored. Findings reveal that both male and female who are active users of Facebook are multilingual whenever they go online. The discussion on the variety of topics speaks of the diversity of the interest of those involved in the communication platform. The interactivity that Facebook provides makes it a medium through which people define themselves by sharing what is going on in their lives or how they are feeling. This makes Facebook a forum where extension of a person’s real-life identity radiates. Moreover, the use of language by male and female are influenced by their social network in Facebook. Through Facebook status updates, male and female do not only express their emotions but also share details about their daily life activities as to what they were doing or what was going on in their lives at that moment. Thus, trainings and seminars among students and teachers on upholding preservation of culture and language must be part of the curriculum to promote youth empowerment, gender fair language and awareness of cyber-bullying, are hereby recommended to develop communicative competence leading to deeper understanding of one another.

Does gender-fair language matter?

Abstract Gender-fair language (GFL), a linguistic practice that aims to avoid gender bias or discrimination by using gender-inclusive terms, has been increasingly recognized in various contexts. Despite this growing recognition, the question of how Filipinos view the use of GFL in the workplace remains underexplored. The present study contributes to this evolving discourse by investigating the perceptions of Filipino professional writers in English toward GFL, an area that has received relatively little attention in the literature, particularly in more restrictive cultural contexts such as the Philippines. Using a qualitative survey with 34 Filipino professional writers, ten of whom participated in follow-up email interviews, I examine the views of these writers on GFL and the aspects that influence them in using GFL in writing. The findings demonstrate that while GFL is seen as positive for social change, practical and contextual considerations affect its use. Factors that facilitate GFL adoption are identified, such as confidence and awareness, commitment to gender equality, and professional growth. In contrast, hindering factors include cultural and ideological resistance, practical and linguistic challenges, and the lack of comprehensive GFL guidelines and resources.

Sexisms on Facebook Page Threads of Xyriel Manabat: A Linguistic Analysis

Linguistic sensitivity is crucial in shaping individuals' thoughts, perceptions, and attitudes. The impact of language influences the creation of opportunities or the imposition of boundaries. This study delves into the realm of sexist language on the Facebook Page threads of the Filipina Child Star Xyriel Manabat, exploring both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. Drawing on Mill's sexist language typology and Herring et al.'s framework for non-linguistic features, five posts from 2021-2022, gathering the 50 most engaging comments were analyzed. Of these, 36 comments exhibited sexist language. The findings identified five overt forms of sexism, including Naming, Insult terms, Semantic Derogation, and generic Pronouns, while indirect sexism manifested in Humor and Presupposition. Non-linguistic features, such as Emoji and Emoticons, Stickers and GIFs, Images, and Videos, were also noted in sexist comments. The conclusion drawn is that Xyriel Manabat's Facebook page comment sections contain sexist languages, characterized by specific linguistic and non-linguistic features. The study advocates for the use of gender-fair language in social media and educational settings, emphasizing the need for linguistic sexism awareness. Additionally, it encourages future research to explore other platforms and materials for comparative analysis, aiming to contribute to a broader understanding of linguistic dynamics in contemporary communication.

Does the gender asterisk (“Gendersternchen”) as a special form of gender-fair language impair comprehensibility?

ABSTRACT Gender-fair language makes women and people of other genders, their interests, and achievements more visible. However, critics argue that gender-fair language impairs the comprehensibility and aesthetic appeal of texts. This study tests these assumptions specifically concerning the gender asterisk, a form of gender-fair language that makes people outside the male-female dichotomy typographically more visible in German. In two experiments with N = 133 and N = 110, subjects were randomly given one of three versions of a text, either with masculine-only forms (e.g. die Spieler*innen, ~“the fe*male players”), the gender asterisk in its plural form (e.g. die Spieler*innen, “the fe*male players”), or the gender asterisk in its singular form (e.g. der*die Spieler*in, “the*the fe*male player”). Subsequently, participants completed a comprehensibility questionnaire. Both experiments show that the gender asterisk in its singular form impairs comprehensibility, but only Experiment 1 shows an impairment due to its plural form.

The use of gender-fair language in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland: A contrastive, corpus-based study

Gender-fair language (GFL) is currently a widely debated topic in the German-speaking context, yet research on the subject is rather scarce with limited comparative data for the three largest German-speaking countries, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The present study seeks to address this research gap with a corpus-based analysis of the use of different forms of GFL over the last two decades in these three countries. Given that the language used by journalists reaches a vast target audience, the corpus for this study consists of some of the most widely circulated and politically diverse daily newspapers in the three countries. The results of the study not only show differences in the frequency of GFL in the three countries, with Austria using GFL most frequently, but also indicate a diverging usage trend from 2021 onwards and variations in the strategies of GFL used. Furthermore, the political orientation of the selected newspapers is not predictive of the frequency of GFL and the strategies used.

Gender agreement in Italian compounds with capo-

Abstract Gender inflection for animated nouns in Italian presents challenges influenced by societal pressures and linguistic structure, especially in morphologically complex words like compounds. The study investigates gender inflection distribution in compounds with capo- compared to other nouns (i.e., occupations traditionally performed by women, by men, and the word capo in isolation), exploring the interplay of social, etymological and morphological factors. 192 native Italian speakers inflected masculine nouns to feminine forms after hearing the stimulus. Results reveal that respondents’ attitudes towards gender-fair language significantly determine the use of feminine, indicating a complex interplay between linguistic structures and social perceptions. Despite historical resistance, the word capa in isolation shows increasing acceptance, challenging entrenched norms. In compounds, capo- element’s gender inflection appears more resistant due to morphological complexity, with an interaction with number. This study advances our understanding of gender inflection, with implications for broader conversations about gender representation and language inclusivity.

Effects of Grammatical Gender on Gender Inferences: Experimental Evidence From Italian Common Gender Nouns

Recent psycholinguistic research has focused on how different grammatical gender marking strategies affect people's mental representation of referents’ gender. Such works particularly explored how explicitly encoded linguistic elements, such as grammatical gender markers, may drive the inferential process as attentional clues. Results of reading comprehension tasks in French and German have shown that the explicit encoding of masculine gender in plural forms of role nouns often leads to a male bias, a specific masculine inference corresponding to the grammatical gender clue, even when the masculine form was intended as generic, thus including women and men. Moreover, comparing generic masculine forms with gender-fair alternatives revealed that the latter significantly reduce this male bias. The present study examines the impact of three gender marking strategies on the construction of generic mental representations. Indeed, the experiment tested generic masculine against two gender-fair forms (split masculine/feminine forms and ambiguous syntactic reformulations) among 38 Italian speakers. No significant effect was found in generating a generic mental representation through form manipulation. However, ambiguous syntactic reformulation realised by presenting target nouns from the Italian common gender noun class and through the neutralisation of determiners’ gender, increased the probability of a male-specific inference. Additionally, a keen interest in gender-fair language topics was linked to longer reaction times, indicating a higher cognitive effort during the inference process.

The case for a duty to use gender-fair language in democratic representation

Abstract In the light of a study of the difference between political actors and ordinary citizens as language users, and based on three moral arguments (consequence-based, recognition-based, and complicity-based), we propose that democratic representatives have an imperfect duty to use gender-fair-language in their public communication.In the case of members of the executive, such as ministries, prime ministries, and presidents, such an imperfect duty could also be justified on democratic grounds. Their choice of using a gender-unfair language, we argue, can cast doubts on the fundamental democratic commitment to respect the agency of all present and future citizens as potential participants in the law-making process.

Język równościowy w nauczaniu DaF na poziomie uniwersyteckim – postawy osób uczących i studiujących wobec jego zastosowania w praktyce dydaktycznej

This paper focuses on gender-fair language and the attitudes of teachers and students of German as a foreign language (DaF) towards its use in university teaching. In the context of the survey study presented here, gender is understood as a construct that is manifested in specific, changing language use variants, such as in personal names. The surveyed teachers and students of applied linguistics at the University are current and future DaF linguists and educators, who, due to social changes, will be increasingly confronted with the issues under study in their professional lives. The aim of the study is, firstly, to determine whether gender-fair language is addressed in the DaF courses under study, if so, in what form and to what extent, and secondly, to record and describe the attitudes of the studied groups towards it, in order to raise awareness of this important phenomenon of contemporary German language use. Consequently, the conducted survey provides information about the presence of gender issues in DaF courses and the attitudes of the two groups towards gender-fair language. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their contribution to the development of gender-sensitive didactics of German as a foreign and as a second language.

Perception and usage of English epicene pronouns among L2 teachers in China‐focusing on he, he or she and they

AbstractThis paper aims to explore the perception and usage of epicene pronouns in English among Chinese EFL teachers, as gender fair language becomes increasingly important for promoting inclusion, respect for identity and expression. This study employed a survey of 284 EFL teachers along with a follow‐up written task to assess their views and actual use of epicene pronouns. The results indicate that while English teachers in China are familiar with the increase of they as an epicene pronoun, the use of he or she is their preferred choice in the survey, with generic he being more common in the written task. The study further reveals that the selection of the epicene pronoun is influenced by factors such as the antecedent type, social gender and the teachers' socio‐cultural background. Promoting gender‐fair language in L2 English teaching in China is crucial. Efforts are needed to increase awareness and usage of gender‐neutral language among Chinese English teachers, emphasizing the importance of incorporating actual language use and adapting to grammatical changes.

Gender-fair language usage among Kalinga State University faculty, correlational with gender stereotype impressions

This study assessed the relationship between gender-fair language usage and the extent of gender stereotype impressions among the faculty of Kalinga State University. Specifically, it determined the extent of gender-fair language usage and the extent of gender stereotype impressions among the respondents, and it also identified if there is a significant relationship between the extent of gender-fair language usage and the extent of gender stereotype impressions among the respondents. Significantly, the study revealed that the faculty are very sensitive to gender-fair language usage and very sensitive to their level of gender-stereotype impressions. It also revealed that there is a significant relationship between the extent of gender-fair language usage and the extent of gender stereotype impressions among the Kalinga State University faculty. Thus, it was concluded that there is a high regard for gender sensitivity among the faculty of Kalinga State University as a result of their very sensitive level of gender-fair language usage and very sensitive level of gender-stereotype impressions. Consequently, one’s perception of gender-fair language usage also affects one’s impression of gender stereotyping.

Effects of grammatical gender on gender inferences: Evidence from French hybrid nouns

Abstract A growing body of research shows that readers and listeners are biased by the grammatical gender of a noun when making inferences about the gender of its referent. This result is central in debates about gender-fair language but has mostly been established using masculine generics. This paper presents two preregistered studies on French that aim to replicate this result but using a lesser-studied type of noun: generic hybrid nouns. These nouns can refer to both male and female individuals but are either masculine or feminine, depending on the noun (e.g. un talent ‘a talent’ and une vedette ‘a star’). The availability of both genders for hybrid nouns allows for a more comprehensive test of the effect of grammatical gender than permitted by masculine generics. Overall, the paper replicates the role of grammatical biases in gender inferences, with masculine hybrid nouns being judged as more likely to refer to male individuals as compared to feminine hybrid nouns. However the results did not reveal a symmetric bias for feminine nouns, which were interpreted as gender-neutral. But this latter result should be interpreted with caution as it could be due to uncontrolled effects of gender stereotypes coming from the specific stimuli used in the study.

EXPLORING THE INTEGRATION OF GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT CONTENT AND PEDAGOGY IN LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH THE LENS OF ENGLISH TEACHERS: A PHENOMENOLOGY

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore into the experiences of teachers on the integration of gender and development content and pedagogy in language teaching. This study was participated by the 13 teachers who were involved in the integration of gender and development in language teaching from the Schools of the Division of Davao de Oro. From the results, it showed that teachers have different lived experiences, coping strategies, and insights on the integration of gender and development content and pedagogy in language teaching. As such, the following themes emerged: using androgynous styles in forming groups; fostering gender-inclusive education; promoting equality and self-discovery through GAD Integration; issues of educating students on gender and development; and problems on gender inclusivity during group activities; utilizing and practicing gender-fair language; integrating GAD activities to teaching; being flexible and adaptive; promoting inclusivity and equality through GAD integration in education; recommending the continuation of GAD integration; and provision of GAD related training and seminar. KEYWORDS: integration of gender and development, language teaching, inclusivity, phenomenology, Davao de Oro

Language as an Agent of Change: Promoting Gender Fairness

This research explores the complex dynamics of gendered language usage in an effort to provide guidance for language-based initiatives that advance gender equality. The study includes a number of goals, such as determining how frequently gendered words are used, analyzing inclusive language policies' effectiveness and presence, learning about respondents' opinions about gendered language, and finding barriers to the adoption of gender-inclusive terminology. The researcher used a Likert scale to analyze the findings after conducting a quantitative survey with 118 students from the City College of Calamba's Arts and Sciences Department. The results show that respondents were mostly in agreement with the negative effects of gendered language in media and advertising, as well as the difficulties in promoting gender-neutral language, especially in media sources. , the study proposes an advocacy project, "Language for Equality: Promoting Gender Fairness," aiming to raise awareness and encourage the use of gender-fair language to combat discrimination and foster gender equality within the college community. This research contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on language as a catalyst for transformative societal change. Limitations, however, include the possible influence of social desirability bias and the distinctive characteristics of the sample. Comprehensive qualitative inquiries, cross-cultural and longitudinal studies, mixed-methods approaches, and evaluations of suggested solutions are among the study directions for the future. It is recommended that media professionals compare educational resources and inclusive language training programs to improve their understanding of gendered language hurdles and practical solutions.

Why Using Feminine Job Titles in German Is Profitable for Women: Ascribed Linguistic Competence Enhances Prospects of Being Hired

In German, symmetrical treatment of women and men through gender-fair language is well established and the use of feminine forms is evaluated positively. In the present study ( N = 331), we examined the mechanisms behind this positive evaluation. Female job applicants were evaluated as more linguistically competent and as more competent in general, which translated into more favorable hiring decisions when using a feminine (vs. a masculine) job title. These results illuminate positive effects of successful language reform for women.

Gender Representation In General Education (GE) Modules

This qualitative discourse analysis and a corpus-based study analyzed the processes employed in embedding male and female characters in General Education (GE) Modules in the local college of Kapalong College of Agriculture, Sciences, and Technology. This study aimed to ascertain the processes of both opposite genders utilizing the Eight-Factor Procedure in Gender Discrimination as adapted from Amerian and Esmaili (2015). Results have shown that there was gender bias in text and images. Gender and linguistic bias were evident due to the repeated imbalance of representations in both opposite genders. With these findings, the researcher has seen the need for a more gender-inclusive curriculum that can raise consciousness and awareness in observing gender-fair language in designing educational materials to be used by teachers and learners in the new normal. Keywords: discourse analysis, gender representation, qualitative study, Philippines

How to make a difference: the impact of gender-fair language on text comprehensibility amongst adults with and without an academic background.

The proliferation of gender-fair language as a medium of communication that represents all genders can be considered as an exciting development in today's rapidly changing world. In this context, the use of the gender asterisk has become especially prominent in German, it being a grammatical gender language. However, critics often argue that gender-fair language makes texts less comprehensible and decreases its aesthetic appeal. The present study tests this assumption for the German language and is the first one to test the influence of an academic background on the comprehensibility of gender-fair language. A text, either written in gender-fair language using the gender star in its singular and plural form or a version using only masculine-only forms, was randomly assigned to 81 adults without an academic background and 82 adults with an academic background (77% women in both groups). Participants were asked to fill out a web-based questionnaire answering questions on text comprehensibility and on their attitudes toward gender-fair language. The results show no statistically significant difference in comprehensibility ratings between participants who read a text in gender-fair language and those who read a text in masculine-only language. In addition, attitudes toward gender-fair language did not affect comprehensibility ratings in participants who read the text written in gender-fair language using the gender star. Further, the academic background had no effect on the assessment of gender-fair language. To conclude, the present study suggests that there is no evidence that gender-fair language reduces the comprehensibility of texts.

“The Authors” Make Me Think Equally of Women and Men: Exploring Mixed-Gender Representations in a Visual Categorisation Task

Abstract A common goal for gender-fair language policies is to promote terms that elicit balanced activation of gender categories. Expanding previous research on the activation of feminine versus masculine categories through person nouns, we used a word-picture response priming design with gendered human faces as target stimuli, to explore whether a simultaneous activation of more than one gender category can be captured empirically. Focusing on Norwegian (Bokmål), we tested whether reading stereotypical (i.e. role nouns, e.g. “care givers”) and categorical gendered person nouns (i.e. name pairs, e.g. “Elin and Sandra”) facilitates the categorisation of face pairs that match the gender of the designated people. In Experiment 1 (N = 32), gender-specific (feminine or masculine) word primes were tested, before gender-balanced word primes (non-stereotyped role nouns; pairs of a female and a male name) were added in Experiment 2 (N = 39). In both experiments, the visual targets were pairs of faces (two female faces, two male faces, or one male and one female face). Consistent with previous results for English, we found gender-specific priming effects, supporting the notion that gender categories activated by linguistic stimuli may also exert influence outside of language processing. Most importantly, mixed-gender faces were successfully primed by non-stereotypical role nouns providing initial support for the idea of a balanced activation of gender categories.

A Morpho-Syntactic Analysis of Gender-Fair Language in Advertisements of Cosmetic Products in Ghana

Gender-fair language challenges and dismantles prevailing societal gender preconceptions. Cosmetic advertisements have been criticized for unfair language choices that perpetuate gender stereotypes. This study is a morphosyntactic examination of gender-fair language in cosmetic advertisements. The social constructionist theory underpins the study. Thirty (30) product packages and labels for the Ghanaian market were used in this qualitative descriptive survey. Gendered terms were analyzed on the morphological level using Quirk et al.’s (1985) functional principle of word categorization. The data collected revealed that Gender-unfair language is prevalent in cosmetic advertisements. Product names, descriptions and claims often use gendered nouns, pronouns, adjectives, phrases of different types and imperative clauses. This reinforces the idea that certain beauty concerns and products are exclusively tailored to specific genders. Gender-unfair language in cosmetic advertisements results in a limited representation of beauty ideals and practices. The use of inclusive language and representations that challenge gender stereotypes and promote diversity was recommended for cosmetic advertisers. The paper provides insight into academic discourse and practical approaches in gender, communication and marketing studies. Keywords: Advertisements, Cosmetics, Gender-Fair Language, Stereotype, Morphosyntactic

Personal pronouns and person perception - Do paired and nonbinary pronouns evoke a normative gender bias?

Research on gender-fair language aims to identify language inclusive to a multitude of individuals, for example, increasing the visibility of women by using paired pronouns (he/she) instead of generic masculine forms (he). However, binary presentations like he/she might come with unwanted side effects and evoke what we label as normative gender bias. A normative gender bias is defined as when words lead to stronger associations with individuals with normative gender expressions than with individuals with non-normative gender expressions, thus contributing to making non-normative individuals invisible. In three experiments, we compared the extent to which the paired pronoun he/she (Swedish and English), the neo-pronouns hen (Swedish), ze (English), and the generic pronoun singular they (English) evoked a normative gender bias. Swedish- (N = 219 and 268) and English- (N = 837, from the UK) speaking participants read about individuals referred to with the paired pronoun he/she or with hen, ze, or they. In Experiment 1 (Swedish), there was no main effect of condition on a normative bias, but in Experiment 2 (Swedish), the paired pronouns he/she evoked normative gender bias while hen did not. In Experiment 3 (English), both ze and singular they evoked normative gender bias, although normative associations were lower in these conditions compared to he/she. Furthermore, the normative bias was lower among participants who had knowledge about the use of ze as a nonbinary pronoun. Finally, neither ze nor they evoked a normative gender bias when their use was explicitly stated to be nonbinary. A potential explanation for why singular they did not generally result in less normative associations, despite almost all participants knowing about it, may include its more common use as a generic pronoun. Taken together, our results suggest that neo-pronouns, but not paired pronouns, have the potential to evoke less normative associations, but that they must be both (1) actively created new words and (2) well-known to language users as nonbinary pronouns.