"Research into the many possible relationships, intersections and tensions between language and gender is diverse...could be said to encompass work notionally housed within applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, cultural studies, feminist media studies, feminist psychology, gender studies, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistics, mediated stylistics, sociolinguistics, and feminist language reform and media studies."
Focuses on examining the impact of gender on communication patterns and practices.
Gender Socialization: The process of learning and internalizing the socially constructed gender roles, behaviors, and expectations of a particular culture.
Gendered Language: Language that reflects and reproduces gender-based inequalities and stereotypes through the use of masculine or feminine speech patterns, pronouns, and titles.
Gendered Communication Styles: The different ways that men and women tend to communicate, which can be influenced by socialization and expectations around gender roles and behavior.
Gendered Nonverbal Communication: The use of nonverbal cues, such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, to convey messages that are often gendered in nature.
The Gender Pay Gap: The disparity in earnings between men and women that can be attributed to a variety of factors, including discrimination and differences in career paths.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Unwanted and unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that creates a hostile work environment and can be both a form of discrimination and a violation of workplace policies.
Gender and Leadership: The study of how gender affects leadership styles, opportunities, and perceptions, as well as the impact of gender diversity on organizational outcomes.
Gender and Power: The ways that gender influences the distribution and exercise of power in social relationships, institutions, and society as a whole.
Traditional Gender Communication: This type of communication reinforces traditional gender roles, emphasizing the difference between men and women in terms of their stereotypical behaviors, roles, and expectations. It values masculinity as forceful and dominant and femininity as passive and dependent.
Feminine Communication: This type of communication is characterized by empathy, active listening, and relationship-building, promoting cooperation and consensus. It values nurturing, emotional expression, and relational connection.
Masculine Communication: This type of communication is characterized by assertiveness, competition, and independence. It values strength, logical thinking, and achieving goals over building personal relationships.
Androgynous Communication: This type of communication blends both feminine and masculine styles of communication. It values flexibility, adaptability and comprehensiveness.
LGBTQ+ Communication: This type of communication is used by those who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, including gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and queer people. Their communication patterns reflect the diverse and complex ways in which they construct and negotiate their gender and sexual identities.
Non-Binary Gender Communication: This type of communication is used by people who identify beyond the traditional binary gender categories of male and female, instead perceiving themselves as neither or a combination of both genders, neither entirely masculine nor feminine. The communication patterns in this category vary; some may embrace aspects of traditional masculinity and femininity, and others may create new, unique expressions of gender.
Gender-Neutral Communication: This type of communication seeks to avoid gender identification altogether, using gender-neutral language or pronouns such as “they” or “them” rather than “he” or “she”. It aims to highlight the individual’s abilities rather than their gender.
Intersex Communication: This type of communication is used by people who are born with ambiguous genitalia or reproductive organs, making it unclear whether they fall into male or female categories. As a result, their communication patterns may reflect various ways of expressing and negotiating their gender identity.
"...there is no single approach that could be said to 'hold the field'. Discursive, poststructural, ethnomethodological, ethnographic, phenomenological, positivist and experimental approaches can all be seen in action during the study of language and gender..."
"...a broad and sustained interest in the varieties of speech associated with a particular gender... and a related interest in the social norms and conventions that (re)produce gendered language use... and studies that focus on ways language can produce and maintain sexism and gender bias, and studies that focus on the contextually specific and locally situated ways in which gender is constructed and operationalized."
"The study of gender and language in sociolinguistics and gender studies is often said to have begun with Robin Lakoff's 1975 book, Language and Woman's Place..."
"Prominent scholars include Deborah Tannen, Penelope Eckert, Janet Holmes, Mary Bucholtz, Kira Hall, Deborah Cameron, Jane Sunderland and others."
"As a result, research in this area can perhaps most usefully be divided into two main areas of study."
"different, and often competing, theoretical and political assumptions about the way discourse, ideology and gender identity should be conceived and understood."
"...related interest in the social norms and conventions that (re)produce gendered language use..."
"...studies that focus on ways language can produce and maintain sexism and gender bias..."
"...researchers try to understand how language affects the gender binary in society."
"Discursive, poststructural, ethnomethodological, ethnographic, phenomenological, positivist and experimental approaches can all be seen in action during the study of language and gender..."
"Research into the many possible relationships, intersections and tensions between language and gender is diverse..."
"...different, and often competing, theoretical and political assumptions about the way discourse, ideology and gender identity should be conceived and understood."
"...a broad and sustained interest in the varieties of speech associated with a particular gender..."
"...applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, cultural studies, feminist media studies, feminist psychology, gender studies, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistics, mediated stylistics, sociolinguistics, and feminist language reform and media studies."
"...contextually specific and locally situated ways in which gender is constructed and operationalized."
"...feminist media studies, feminist psychology, gender studies, feminist language reform and media studies."
"...phenomenological, positivist and experimental approaches can all be seen in action during the study of language and gender..."
"The study of language and gender has developed greatly since the 1970s."
"The 1995 edited volume Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self is often referred to as a central text on language and gender."