Language and gender research in an experimental setting

Abstract

An excessive amount of research energy has been devoted to testing and/or refuting a relatively small number of claims about the language of women put forth by a few prominent individuals. That the academic community is still discussing unsubstantiated statements about women's language made more than 20 years ago is quite disturbing. Language and gender studies conducted in natural settings may often find differences in women's and men's speech simply because women and men are frequently engaged in different activities. And as long as gender dichotomies persist, researchers will be obliged to consider gender in the process of analysing the interaction of language and social life. Researchers need to exert extreme caution before generalizing about any characteristics garnered from specific women's or men's verbal interactions. When language styles are identified as symbolic of the social nature of women, it is the very associations that can then be used to perpetuate the unequal treatment of women in world.