Gender Discrimination in Language Use Between Men and Women in Society

Sexism is the prejudice against genders, especially against women. This has been around for a very long time, there women have not been treated equally as men are. This discrimination victimises females in many aspects including the workforce, attitude and even society in general; this is shown through language that showcases the male-dominated society.

Vocabulary is highly influenced by the gender differences, that have categorised women differently than men. This can be illustrated by lexical asymmetry, which are words that do not have an equivalent connotation when being converted from masculine to feminine; an example of this is ‘mister’, whose female equivalent is ‘mistress’ that has a negative connotation of being in a relationship with a married man, while the male version has a more formal connotation. Marked terms also illustrate this point of discrimination, that suggest an added suffix to the male term of a word makes the feminine form. Words that are used regularly like ‘actor’ have the addition of an affix to become ‘actress’; or phrases like ‘female-doctor’ that have the emphasis of the gender held by the occupation normally dominated by males. Insulting usage of words also shows that men are usually more positively compared to when related to women being compared to sexual behaviours; while ‘slut’ is usually referring to a woman that sleeps with many men, ‘Casanova’ is given to the male that sleeps with many women. This may also show superiority of man over women by nicknames and the use of male pronouns for inanimate objects like cars. Words that refer to the general term, rather than to the specific male population like the word ‘mankind’ that refers to the human species, might also imply the domination of men.

Grammar can also be a factor of sexist language; this is illustrated when using the male pronoun for general instances, like ‘anyone can choose whatever he wants’. Another case that shows male superiority over females is the ‘fitting’ order at which the genders are perceived, the wording of the male being before the female shows the priority: ‘’he or she’, ‘male or female’ and so forth.

Alternatively, language can be used without this gender bias with the help of raised awareness to not use discriminating language. Usage of vocabulary has become more inclusive with gender-specific terms are being substituted with gender-neutral terms like ‘policeman’ to ‘police officer’. The use of female titles that specify their martial status are also being replaced with a common title, that is ‘Ms’, rather than ‘Mrs’ or ‘Miss’; as well as the adapting of the husband’s surname in marriage is decreasing as some choose to keep their maiden surname.

While anti-sexism awareness is helping with decreasing the difference in language use between men and women, discrimination still exists against both sexes.