From Chairman to Chairperson: The Role of Language in Gender Equality

              Language 

 Language is a powerful weapon. When used thoughtfully, it can be as sweet as sugarcane; when used harshly, it can taste as bitter as bitter gourd.

  

Gender-discriminatory language

Colour plays vital role for gender-discriminaory language like Pink for girls and Blue for boys.

How gender leads to gender bias in science?

If we speak a language with a high gender bias, we are more likely to associate men with career and women with family. To know more about how language leads to gender bias in science click on this link Language leads to gender bias for further more Information. 

Gender-discriminatory language is the opposite of gender-sensitive language. It includes words, phrases and/or other linguistic features that foster stereotypes, or demean or ignore women or men. At its most extreme it fails to treat the genders as equal in value, dignity, integrity and respect.

Language is an important part of how we and society shape our views. If I say: that person is so beautiful, yet hysterical, who do you think of? If I say: they are strong, aggressive and cocky, who comes to mind? I bet you thought of a woman first and then of a man. We tend to use different adjectives to describe people of different genders. Often, these adjectives have negative connotations for women. A woman is bossy while a man is confident. Gender bias and stereotypical gender roles are a big part of many languages and fuel discrimination, sometimes unintentionally, but also occasionally intentionally.

What we say matters is not just grammatically gendered languages influence gender inequality, also the words we use have an impact. For example: In english we call a man Mr., but for a woman we use either Ms. or Mrs. depending on her marital status. Doesn’t that suggest that the status of a woman changes depending on whether she is married or not? It doesn’t do that for man, so why do we have to differentiate for women?

Job descriptions have gotten a lot better, but many jobs still use gendered wording in their advertisements. This leads to underrepresentation of women in traditionally male-dominated fields as they do not see themselves represented in the respective field. Further, once a woman holds a leadership position she is held to a different standard and her style of leadership is dissected differently than that of a man. Taking it back to the intro: A woman is bossy, a man is confident. We tend to use communal terms for women and power terms for men which consequently leads to people assuming men are more capable of holding a position of power in the first place.

For example in this picture we can see the man calling chairman have we ever heard the word  chairwoman .

Language plays a crucial role in shaping societal attitudes. The words we choose—whether addressing someone or describing something—carry weight. By being mindful of our language, we can challenge stereotypes and foster a more inclusive world.