Perpetuate Gender Stereotypes Research Articles

Gender bias in linguistics textbooks: Has anything changed since Macaulay & Brice 1997?

Macaulay and Brice (1997:798) surveyed example sentences in eleven syntax textbooks published from 1969–1994 and found that virtually all of the authors ‘favor male-gendered NPs as subjects and agents, and regularly stereotype both genders’. In this article, we address the question of whether constructed example sentences in more recent textbooks show similar gender bias. We present an analysis of six syntax textbooks published from 2005–2017, from which we randomly sampled 200 example sentences each. We find that the gender skew and stereotypes reported in 1997 are still present today. Male-gendered arguments are almost twice as frequent as female-gendered ones, and more likely to occur as subjects and agents. In addition, example sentences often perpetuate gender stereotypes. We discuss some broader implications and potential interventions to prevent the implicit perpetuation of gender biases in linguistic materials.

Gender bias in linguistics textbooks: Has anything changed since Macaulay & Brice 1997?

Macaulay and Brice (1997:798) surveyed example sentences in eleven syntax textbooks published from 1969–1994 and found that virtually all of the authors 'favor male-gendered NPs as subjects and agents, and regularly stereotype both genders'. In this article, we address the question of whether constructed example sentences in more recent textbooks show similar gender bias. We present an analysis of six syntax textbooks published from 2005–2017, from which we randomly sampled 200 example sentences each. We find that the gender skew and stereotypes reported in 1997 are still present today. Male-gendered arguments are almost twice as frequent as female-gendered ones, and more likely to occur as subjects and agents. In addition, example sentences often perpetuate gender stereotypes. We discuss some broader implications and potential interventions to prevent the implicit perpetuation of gender biases in linguistic materials.

Gender Representation in East African History Textbooks: The Cases of Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda

Various studies have analyzed the ways in which gender is represented in textbooks. We draw on the cases of lower secondary history textbooks from three East African countries—Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda—where gender mainstreaming has been integrated into national education policies to varying degrees. Through a qualitative analysis of nine secondary history textbooks from these countries, we investigate how gender is represented in both text and images, illuminating the power relations in these representations as well as how gender representation varies across the three country cases. Our analysis demonstrates that despite the nominal inclusion of women, the texts draw on gender-biased language, discuss women primarily in relation to men, and construct men as the default. We argue that the representation of women in the textbooks also intersects with notions of race and class, serving to perpetuate gender stereotypes and reproduce hierarchical gender relations, contradicting the gendermainstreaming policies stipulated in education curricula within the three countries.

Playing and Interacting Through Technologies (of Gender)

Computing areas perpetuate gender stereotypes that construct notions of masculinity and femininity. These stereotypes can be found in areas such as Informatics and Game Development. Based on models of the nature of HCI, and game elements, this research intent to propose a hybrid model (Orety) which encompasses these fields and gender theory through the concept of technologies of gender. This article contribution comes from the proposed model, and the reflexive analysis, that it provides, putting multiple perspectives into dialogue and promoting a critical view of gender relations and gender stereotypes in academic and scientific fields.

Gender at Work Across Nations: Men and Women Working in Male‐Dominated and Female‐Dominated Occupations are Differentially Associated with Agency and Communion

AbstractOccupational gender segregation is a worldwide phenomenon. Research from Western regions such as the United States and Europe shows that the observation of occupational gender segregation can perpetuate gender stereotypes (social role theory; men are ascribed agentic traits, whereas women are ascribed communal traits). However, predictions from social role theory have not been well‐tested in non‐Western nations. In a study with 1,918 participants from 10 nations systematically differing in gender inequality, we investigated the extent to which target men and women in gender‐segregated occupations are associated with stereotype‐relevant traits. Results showed that 12 preselected occupations were perceived as gender‐segregated in all nations. In line with social role theory, across nations, target men and women in male‐dominated occupations were associated with agentic traits, whereas targets in female‐dominated occupations were associated with communal traits. Targets’ gender, but not national‐level gender inequality, moderated these results. The relevance of cross‐national research for understanding gender stereotypes and pathways to reduce gender inequality are discussed.

Gender representation in linguistic example sentences

Prior studies have shown that example sentences in syntax textbooks systematically under-represent women and perpetuate gender stereotypes (Macaulay & Brice 1994, 1997; Pabst et al. 2018). We examine the articles published over the past 20 years in Language, Linguistic Inquiry, and Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, and find striking similarities to this prior work. Among our findings, we show a stark imbalance of male (N=10807) to female (N=5019) arguments, and that male-gendered arguments are more likely to be subjects, and female arguments non-subjects. We show that female-gendered arguments are less likely to be referred to using pronouns and are more likely to be referred to using a kinship term, whereas male-gendered arguments are more likely to have occupations and to perpetrate violence. We show that this pattern has remained stable, with very little change, over the course of the twenty years that we examine, leading up to the present day. We conclude with a brief discussion of possible remedies and suggestions for improvement.

The ‘bad women drivers’ myth: the overrepresentation of female drivers and gender bias in China’s media

ABSTRACTThe body of literature on underrepresentation and gender inequality is vast. However, despite its potential to perpetuate gender stereotypes, the overrepresentation of women in media has received inadequate attention. This study explores how traditional news media and social media overrepresent females as drivers when discussing traffic accidents, and whether social media could be the ‘new equalizer’ for gender. Focusing on China, we collected 97,120 posts from Weibo, China’s largest microblogging site, and 11,290 newspaper articles dated between January 2010 and November 2018. We analyzed the data through a mixed-methods design and found that female drivers are overrepresented in discussions of traffic accidents, in both newspapers and on Weibo. While the gender bias against female drivers is more prevalent on Weibo than in newspapers, Weibo has provided a platform for gender-aware discussion. Our study closes by offering suggestions for cross-platform and cross-cultural comparisons of gender representation in the digital age.

Beyond Big Law: Toward a More Inclusive Study of Gender in the Legal Profession

This Article reviews research and theory in the field of gender in the legal profession using a framework developed by feminist theorist Barbara Risman. Risman asserts that gender is a social structure, “an entity in and of itself,” which operates on the individual, interactional, and institutional levels. Using Risman’s tripartite framework, I explore two prominent questions in the gender and legal professions literature: (1) Why do men and women advance differently in their careers? and (2) Are women more or less satisfied with their legal careers than men? In doing so, I demonstrate that the vast majority of theories of gender inequality in the legal profession, and the research methods undertaken to test them, focus on individual and institutional analysis to the exclusion of interactional analysis.I further highlight a lack of research focusing on the ways in which gender is embedded in interactions between female lawyers and those who shape their career choices: partners, friends, mentors, and colleagues. I argue that existing research reifies Big Law partnership by using such positions as the measuring stick against which all other legal positions are valued. I further argue that current studies unintentionally perpetuate gender stereotypes by conceiving of gender inequality as a women-only issue. Work-life balance is conflated with having children such that the notion of having a life outside of work is itself now gendered. I call for a renewed study of the interaction between gender and other intersectional identities like race and class, given the unique set of challenges faced by female attorneys who are also racial minorities and/or live on less than a Big Law salary. I further offer policy recommendations, including government- or firm-sponsored childcare and gender-related legal education for law students and lawyers.

La rebelión de Galatea: autómatas, cíborgs y otras construcciones femeninas subversivas del siglo XXI

Since time immemorial, the archetype of artificial woman has embodied the desire for masculine domination and an ambivalent eroticism derived from the fear of its presumed uprising. In addition to constituting one of the fundamental representations of misogyny, the artificial creature embodies one of the paradigms of the sinister feminine. Thus, on the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea have been built innumerable feminine constructions, automatons, cyborgs and replicants that last until today. The cultural heritage of these myths, which are updated again and again under different forms, ends up perpetuating gender stereotypes and values of submission and domination implicit in them. This article intends to reflect on the implications derived from the said cultural heritage, proposing feminist art as a way to analyze and question the mechanisms still configuring our identity and power relations between genders.

"Girls Are as Good as Boys at Math" Implies That Boys Are Probably Better: A Study of Expressions of Gender Equality.

Although "Girls are as good as boys at math" explicitly expresses equality, we predict it could nevertheless suggest that boys have more raw talent. In statements with this subject-complement structure, the item in the complement position serves as the reference point and is thus considered more typical and prominent. This explains why "Tents are like houses," for instance, sounds better than "Houses are like tents"-people generally think of houses as more typical. For domains about ability, the reference point should be the item that is typically more skilled. We further propose that the reference point should be naturally more skilled. In two experiments, we presented adults with summaries of actual scientific evidence for gender equality in math (Experiment 1) or verbal ability (Experiment 2), but we manipulated whether the reference point in the statements of equality in the summaries (e.g., "Boys' verbal ability is as good as girls'") was girls or boys. As predicted, adults attributed more natural ability to each gender when it was in the complement rather than subject position. Yet, in Experiment 3, we found that when explicitly asked, participants judged that such sentences were not biased in favor of either gender, indicating that subject-complement statements must be transmitting this bias in a subtle way. Thus, statements such as "Girls are as good as boys at math" can actually backfire and perpetuate gender stereotypes about natural ability.

Emancipating the Passive Muse: A Call for a Feminist Approach to Writing Biographies on Historical Women

This essay analyzes two popular biographies on historical women to interrogate how a focus on gender has shaped the genre: Nancy Ruben Stuart’s The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (2008) and Jung Chang’s Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (2013). I argue that biographers who perpetuate gender stereotypes miss a momentous opportunity during the current life writing boom in the United States to educate readers on women’s social, cultural, and political contributions worldwide. In proposing that feminist-informed biographies are more accurate, complete, and make social and cultural interventions, I discuss how these texts celebrate women’s abilities and successes and, thus, counter patriarchal interpretations of history

From Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana

Moana (2016) continues a tradition of Disney princess movies that perpetuate gender stereotypes. The movie contains the usual Electral undercurrent, with Moana seeking to prove her independence to her overprotective father. Moana’s partner in her adventures, Maui, is overtly hypermasculine, a trait epitomized by a phallic fishhook that is critical to his identity. Maui’s struggles with shapeshifting also reflect male anxieties about performing masculinity. Maui violates the Mother Island, first by entering her cave and then by using his fishhook to rob her of her fertility. The repercussions of this act are the basis of the plot: the Mother Island abandons her form as a nurturing, youthful female (Te Fiti) focused on creation to become a vengeful lava monster (Te Kā). At the end, Moana successfully urges Te Kā to get in touch with her true self, a brave but simple act that is sufficient to bring back Te Fiti, a passive, smiling green goddess. The association of youthful, fertile females with good and witch-like infertile females with evil implies that women’s worth and well-being are dependent upon their procreative function. Stereotypical gender tropes that also include female abuse of power and a narrow conception of masculinity merit analysis in order to further progress in recognizing and addressing patterns of gender hegemony in popular Disney films.

Word order denotes relevance differences: The case of conjoined phrases with lexical gender.

This work explores the order of linguistic references to the two genders (e.g., men and women vs. women and men). It argues that a gender is more likely to be mentioned first when it is perceived to have higher relevance in a context rather than lower relevance, and audiences assign stronger relevance to a party when the party is mentioned first rather than second. Studies 1-3 document the current prevalence of male-first conjoined phrases in the public (but not family) domain and link the pattern to historical changes in women's public presence over the 20th century. Study 4 shows that contextual relevance cues affect the odds of first mention, such that people are more likely to refer to a woman before a man, when the two are in a primary school classroom rather than a corporate office. At the same time, Studies 4 and 5 find that people often choose to reproduce collectively preferred word order patterns (e.g., men and women). Studies 6 and 7 show that these choices matter because people assign more relevance to a party when it comes first rather than second in a conjoined phrase. Overall, this work offers theoretical grounding and empirical evidence for word order as a means of expressing and perpetuating gender stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record

Girls Gone Web

The Internet was heralded as a medium that might expand coverage of women’s sports, yet some question whether the Internet has provided even more opportunities to perpetuate gender stereotypes. This research study examines the personal websites of professional and amateur female athletes to determine how women present themselves to the public. This qualitative analysis considers whether women practice “apologetic behavior,” in which they assure the public they are women first and athletes second, and whether women follow traditional gender scripts that characterize them as maternal, sexy, or childlike. The analysis shows that women promote their brawn, beauty, and brands. Women provide details about the rigors of training to be elite athletes but also provide details about their personal lives that reinforce gender stereotypes. The analysis concludes that women use websites to construct an apologetic identity, in which they emphasize that they have sacrificed time and energy for their sport, but have not abandoned traditional feminine roles of sex object, mother, or caretaker.

Subtly Sexist Language

Why do I use 'chairman' instead of 'chairperson'? I hadn't really thought about it. Does it matter? --General Counsel of a major U.S. corporation (1) Where, after all, do human rights begin? In small places, close to home ... the neighborhood ... the school or college ... the factory, farm, or office. Such are the places where every woman, man, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. --Eleanor Roosevelt (2) Language can be a potent vehicle for subtle sexism. (3) As lawyers, we understand the power of words. What we say and how we say it can perpetuate gender stereotypes and status differences between women and men. In contrast, language also can be used as a constructive tool for reinforcing equality. Sometimes, sexist language is blatant and universally shunned. Other times, it is more subtle and even socially acceptable. For instance, social science research has considered the use of male-gendered generics (the use of such words as he, man, chairman, or mankind to represent both women and men) rather than gender-neutral alternatives (such as she or he, human, chairperson, or humankind). As we will discuss, this research concludes that male-gendered generics are exclusionary of women and tend to reinforce gender stereotypes. However, these words may not be recognized as discriminatory, because their use is perceived as normative and therefore not unusual. In addition, those who use these words may not intend to cause harm. Complaining about their use may even be criticized as a trivial activity or an overly sensitive reaction. (4) Sexism and sexist language get an unintentional boost from people who say, Gee, I haven't noticed it, and thus conclude that using male-gendered generics must not be a problem. Of that small group of people who are aware that language has the potential to be sexist, it is an even smaller group that understands the scope of sexist language's pervasiveness--from newspapers and textbooks, to classroom, boardroom, and courtroom presentations, to the inscriptions engraved on prized monuments, statues, and memorials. Substantial interdisciplinary research and commentary have underscored the use of male-gendered pronouns and nouns as a form of subtle sexism in various settings. (5) Yet, there is a surprising absence of discussion on the use and effect of these words among lawyers, law faculty, law students, and judges. (6) Given the declarations of law schools, law firms, and courts on their commitment to nonsexist and diverse environments, one might expect that legal professionals would no longer use male-gendered generics since alternative gender-neutral options are available. Given the persistent signs of gender discrimination and the lack of gender parity in the profession, (7) one might question whether a causal relationship exists between sexist language used in the legal community and sexism more broadly in these settings. We noticed, however, that some law teachers, students, and professionals continue to use male-gendered generics in their conversations, both inside and outside the classroom, and in their writings. This observation prompted us to research the subject more thoroughly to see if our impression of the ongoing use of these words in the legal community was accurate. If so, what are the implications of this conduct given the social science research on the effects of sexist language? Drawing from interdisciplinary research, we synthesized the research on subtly sexist language and, particularly, the use of male-gendered generics. We discovered a consensus among social science researchers that male-gendered generics are examples of subtle sexism. (8) Based on our original empirical analysis, we also studied the use of male-gendered words by judges in their judicial opinions, lawyers in their legal briefs, and faculty and other authors in law review articles. …

AN ANALYSIS OF SETSWANA FOLKTALES FROM A GENDERED PERSPECTIVE

In Botswana, gender is constructed in many different ways including but not limited to the names given to children, the games children play, through songs and proverbs and through messages presented in mainane (folktales). The important role that folktales play in the socialisation process of members of a society is well documented. Like in most societies, mainane play many different functions such as being didactic, moralistic, cultural records, therapeutic as well as forms of entertainment. However, this paper focuses on the gendered messages conveyed in Setswana folktales. It discusses how societal expectations of men and women can be understood from Setswana folktales. It further argues that the values transmitted in the folktales have clear ideological goals, and they encourage and perpetuate gender stereotypes between men and women. A few mainane will be analysed from a gender perspective to validate the argument of this paper.

Políticas lingüísticas sensibles al género y la deconstrucción de estereotipos de género en los manuales de ELE

Políticas lingüísticas sensibles al género y la deconstrucción de estereotipos de género en los manuales de ELE

Beaten, Broken and Burnt–The Violence Against the Bodies of the Female Protagonist in Three 21st Century Bestsellers Written by Women

Three bestsellers published in the last ten years-Twilight(2005), The Hunger Games(2008) and Fifty Shades of Grey(2011)-present an impressive deal of violence against the female body, a fact that demands investigation considering it may shape their readers' views on this. Therefore, this work aims at analyzing the discourses on violence against the female protagonist's body through the study of linguistic features in extracts from those three books. The analysis is done under the light of Critical Discourse Analysis, verifying the discourses embedded in this violence and the repercussions these discourses may have in terms of perpetuating gender stereotypes, especially in literature. More specifically, the focus of this study is on the for the violence against women and if these justifications come from and/or consolidate hegemonic ways of thinking regarding this subject.

No Maaam: Progressive Reform as an Obstacle to Gender Equality

In the four decades between 1897 and 1937, conservatives repeatedly skirmished with progressives, especially in the labor arena. The chief weapons were liberty of contract on the conservative side and the state’s police power on the progressive side. Since the 1970s, a growing body of scholarship has taken a critical look at Progressive Era Supreme Court cases with an eye toward evaluating the long-term legacy of women’s protective labor legislation. This paper seeks to add a critical piece to the conversation by looking at efforts by the Court to acquiesce to the progressive political agenda by perpetuating gender stereotypes and prolonging a period of indifference toward the rights of women. The courts’ already-deferential attitude toward women’s protective labor legislation was reinforced and enhanced by abandonment of meaningful rational basis review. Given a fair chance, the natural evolution of the liberty of contract doctrine might well have led to some fuller measure of gender equality, especially in the labor arena, considerably sooner than actually occurred. Ultimately, though, the structural subordination of women doomed their chances.

Gender differences in narcissism: a meta-analytic review.

Despite the widely held belief that men are more narcissistic than women, there has been no systematic review to establish the magnitude, variability across measures and settings, and stability over time of this gender difference. Drawing on the biosocial approach to social role theory, a meta-analysis performed for Study 1 found that men tended to be more narcissistic than women (d = .26; k = 355 studies; N = 470,846). This gender difference remained stable in U.S. college student cohorts over time (from 1990 to 2013) and across different age groups. Study 1 also investigated gender differences in three facets of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to reveal that the narcissism gender difference is driven by the Exploitative/Entitlement facet (d = .29; k = 44 studies; N = 44,108) and Leadership/Authority facet (d = .20; k = 40 studies; N = 44,739); whereas the gender difference in Grandiose/Exhibitionism (d = .04; k = 39 studies; N = 42,460) was much smaller. We further investigated a less-studied form of narcissism called vulnerable narcissism-which is marked by low self-esteem, neuroticism, and introversion-to find that (in contrast to the more commonly studied form of narcissism found in the DSM and the NPI) men and women did not differ on vulnerable narcissism (d = -.04; k = 42 studies; N = 46,735). Study 2 used item response theory to rule out the possibility that measurement bias accounts for observed gender differences in the three facets of the NPI (N = 19,001). Results revealed that observed gender differences were not explained by measurement bias and thus can be interpreted as true sex differences. Discussion focuses on the implications for the biosocial construction model of gender differences, for the etiology of narcissism, for clinical applications, and for the role of narcissism in helping to explain gender differences in leadership and aggressive behavior. Readers are warned against overapplying small effect sizes to perpetuate gender stereotypes.