Description

In recent years the use of gender fair language (e.g., pair forms: explicitly stating both sexes to refer to mixed gender groups or groups whose sex composition is unknown –“Ingenieure und Ingenieurinnen”, [male and female] engineers) has been strongly promoted as the alternative for generic masculine forms (i.e., using the masculine form generically to refer to mixed gender groups or to groups whose sex composition is unknown or irrelevant: “Ingenieure”, [male] engineers). This language reform reflects the belief that language not only echoes the social world but also has the power to influence people's perception of reality and subsequent behavior. Since language is said to be a tool to 1) represent reality, 2) appeal listeners, 3) express the sender’s personality, this thesis examined how the outcomes of these three functions of language are affected when pair forms are used rather than generic masculine forms. Results from a series of experiments with primary school children aged 6 to 12 showed that pair forms (compared to generic masculine forms) significantly influenced children's 1) mental representations (gender-related associations, status- and success-perception) and 2) motivation (self-efficacy beliefs and occupational interest) towards traditionally male occupations: the use of pairforms (rather than generic masculine forms) to describe occupations made children perceive traditional occupations less reserved for males only, lower in social status and at the same boosted their self-efficacy beliefs. Girls also indicated to be more interested in traditionally male occupations when they were presented in pair forms rather than in generic masculine form. In a separate line of research with adults it could further be shown that 3) the expressive function was influenced: speakers of gender fair language (i.e., pair forms) were perceived less sexist, more warm and competent than speakers of traditional language (i.e., generic masculine forms). Also, the hiring likability for speakers who used pair forms was perceived higher compared to those speakers who used generic masculine forms. Altogether, the findings gathered in this thesis support the notion that gender fair language is both an expression of a person's commitment to gender equality and an effective tool actively contributing to more gender balanced perceptions and motivation towards gender-stereotyped domains.

Project Details

Project Type

Dissertation

Subject Group

Law, Economics and Social Sciences

End

2013

Organization

Faculty/Central Institute

Education and Psychology

Field/Work Area

Department of School and Teaching Research

Project Team

Director

Dries Vervecken

Publications

https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/5473

Researchers

• Dries Vervecken

  Former