Ambassadors of gender equality? How use of pair forms versus masculines as generics impacts perception of the speaker

Vervecken, Dries; Hannover, Bettina

doi:10.1002/ejsp.1893

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Consistent with other studies on German (Vervecken and Hannover, 2012), Study 3 on Austrian German showed that designating women with gender-fair (feminine) forms led to higher support for all types of initiative than when the female proponents were labeled with masculine forms. In line with Vervecken and Hannover (2012), we assumed that the use of gender-fair language in German is currently associated with higher education or competence and has lost its novelty as well as its associations with feminism.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Our findings may offer an explanatory framework for the results of earlier studies, which report both positive and negative speaker perceptions of gender-fair wording (e.g., McConnell and Fazio, 1996; Vervecken and Hannover, 2012). These seemingly contradictory results reflect different stages of adaptation to gender-fair language in the respective societies investigated.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…In line with Vervecken and Hannover (2012), we assumed that the use of gender-fair language in German is currently associated with higher education or competence and has lost its novelty as well as its associations with feminism. Violating a linguistic norm, as well as the gender-fairness norm, may be considered a sign of incompetence (e.g., Giles and Coupland, 1991) and is thus stigmatized.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this conclusion may be premature as we still do not know the popular reaction to politically correct language after it has been implemented for a longer time. Positive effects of gender-fair language have been reported only for Germany, where this usage has been in practice for a longer time (Vervecken and Hannover, 2012). Hence, over time, politically correct language can be reasonably assumed to become a linguistic standard and thus may then trigger positive evaluation among its users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Capturing socially motivated linguistic change: how the use of gender-fair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gender-fair language consists of the symmetric linguistic treatment of women and men instead of using masculine forms as generics. In this study, we examine how the use of gender-fair language affects readers' support for social initiatives in Poland and Austria. While gender-fair language is relatively novel in Poland, it is well established in Austria. This difference may lead to different perceptions of gender-fair usage in these speech communities. Two studies conducted in Poland investigate whether the evaluation of social initiatives (Study 1: quotas for women on election lists; Study 2: support for women students or students from countries troubled by war) is affected by how female proponents (lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, and academics) are referred to, with masculine forms (traditional) or with feminine forms (modern, gender-fair). Study 3 replicates Study 2 in Austria. Our results indicate that in Poland, gender-fair language has negative connotations and therefore, detrimental effects particularly when used in gender-related contexts. Conversely, in Austria, where gender-fair language has been implemented and used for some time, there are no such negative effects. This pattern of results may inform the discussion about formal policies regulating the use of gender-fair language.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Capturing socially motivated linguistic change: how the use of gender-fair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To test our hypotheses that language form used to describe occupational titles would influence the ascription of warmth and competence to prototypical jobholders, we conducted separate analyses for warmth and competence in line with previous research (e.g., Vervecken and Hannover, 2012; Budziszewska et al, 2014). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Warm-hearted businessmen, competitive housewives? Effects of gender-fair language on adolescents’ perceptions of occupations

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent studies from countries with grammatical gender languages (e.g., French) found both children and adults to more frequently think of female jobholders and to consider women’s success in male dominated occupations more likely when the jobs were described in pair forms (i.e., by explicit reference to male and female jobholders, e.g., inventeuses et inventeurs; French feminine and masculine plural forms for inventors), rather than masculine only forms (e.g., inventors). To gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, we systematically varied the gender connotation of occupations (males overrepresented, females overrepresented, equal share of males and females) and measured additional dependent variables, predicting that gender fair language would reduce the impact of the gender connotation on participants’ perceptions. In a sample of 222 adolescents (aged 12–17) from French speaking Switzerland, we found that pair forms attenuated the difference in the ascription of success to male and female jobholders in gendered occupations and attenuated the differential ascription of warmth to prototypical jobholders in male vs. female dominated jobs. However, no effect of language form on the ascription of competence was found. These findings suggest that language policies are an effective tool to impact gendered perceptions, however, they also hint at competence-related gender stereotypes being in decline.

show abstract

Gender-Fair Language in the Context of Recruiting and Evaluating Leaders

Horvath

2015

Auswahl Von Männern Und Frauen Als Führungskräfte

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ambassadors of gender equality? How use of pair forms versus masculines as generics impacts perception of the speaker

Cited by 14 publications

References 32 publications

Capturing socially motivated linguistic change: how the use of gender-fair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland

Capturing socially motivated linguistic change: how the use of gender-fair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland

Warm-hearted businessmen, competitive housewives? Effects of gender-fair language on adolescents’ perceptions of occupations

Gender-Fair Language in the Context of Recruiting and Evaluating Leaders

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About