Reducing a Male Bias in Language? Establishing the Efficiency of Three Different Gender-Fair Language Strategies

Bibliographic Data

ID11997037
AuthorsAnna Lindqvist (0000-0002-0468-2622, Lund University, corresponding author), Emma A Renström (0000-0001-6593-2464, University of Gothenburg), Marie Gustafsson Sendén (0000-0001-5398-2894, Södertörn University)
Year2018
Volume81
Issue1-2
Pages109-117
Publication date2018-10-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSex Roles (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0360-0025 • E-ISSN: 1573-2762
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11199-018-0974-9
OpenAlexW2897957124
LanguageEN
Citations received47
References cited36

Different strategies of gender-fair language have been applied to reduce a male bias, which means the implicit belief that a word describing an undefined person describes a man. This male bias might be caused by the words themselves in terms of generic masculine or masculine forms or by androcentrism (the conflation of men with humanity). In two experiments, we tested how different gender-fair strategies used as labels of an unknown social target (an applicant in a recruitment situation) could eliminate the male bias. The three types of gender-fair strategies tested were: (a) paired forms (he/she), (b) traditional neutral words (e.g., singular they, “the applicant”), or (c) gender-neutral third-person pronouns actively created to challenge the binary gender system (ze, Swedish hen). The two experiments were performed in Swedish with 417 undergraduates in Sweden and in English with 411 U.S. participants recruited online. In Swedish, the third-person gender-neutral pronoun singular (hen) was used. In English, several forms of such gender-neutral pronouns have been suggested (e.g., ze). In both experiments, results indicated that paired forms and actively created gender-neutral pronouns eliminated the male bias, whereas traditional neutral words contained a male bias. Thus, gender-fair language strategies should avoid using traditional words. Consequences of using paired forms and creating new gender-neutral words are discussed. We argue that an actively created gender-neutral pronoun is of highest value because it is more inclusive

Conflation · Gender bias · Grammatical Gender · Humanity · Linguistics · Pronoun · Gender Studies in Language · Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access