Does Inclusive Language Increase the Visibility of Women, or Does It Simply Decrease the Visibility of Men? A Missing Piece of the Inclusive Language Jigsaw

Abstract

The use of a single bipolar gender scale to evaluate the estimated gender breakdown of an occupational group has long been the standard measure for assessing the effects of linguistic-grammatical information and gender stereotypes on the mental representations of gender. However, this scale presupposes a reciprocal relationship between the gender poles, assuming that the estimated number of one gender group constrains the estimation of the other. This is questionable, as distinct linguistic modulations and gender stereotypes may exert asymmetrical influences on each gender group’s representation. The current study, therefore, used gender-separated scales and showed that an inclusive language manipulation on the presentation of occupations can increase the visibility of women when the occupations do not carry feminine stereotype information but can also decrease the visibility of men when the occupations do not carry masculine stereotype information. Using this scale may be a more appropriate approach for future studies to capture the influence of language forms on gender representation in a more nuanced way.