Why Sexist Language Matters?

Even though decades of feminist consciousness-raising, sexist language still lives in our way of life. Gender-specific heading and pronouns be able to subtly influence sexism as well as our opinion and expectations about sexual category roles and suitable occupations and goals for the sexes.

Sexist language is language that excludes either men or women while discussing a subject that is relevant to both sexes. This includes using the word man to refer to humanity, and using titles like Congressman and fireman. Another common mistake that illustrates gender bias is assuming that the focus of all sentences is male. For instance, the statement "Each student chose his own topic for his term paper," leads the reader to guess that all the students in the class were male, although the possibility that part of them were female.

Basic sexist language is gender bias, which be able to take place consciously or unconsciously. When unconscious, the gender bias in language can be measured to be the product of society: other people use sexist language, and repetition standardizes it until the speaker unconsciously creates his or her own sexist language where men are the norm and women the "other."