Gender &
Language
A Guide to Web Resources
Web
Project
by
Megan
Arundel, Jason Edelheit, Carrie Mitchell & Bridget Nicholson
University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, EdPsy 313, Fall 2001 (Gary Cziko, instructor)
USEFUL
WEBSITES:
Gender in ...Children's Picture
Books - Sex Roles
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m2294/3-4_40/54710016/p1/article.jhtml
This site contains an article that examines gender
differences in emotional language in children's picture books, and the gender
stereotypes developed by children under five. It is said that by the age of 5,
most children have developed strong gender stereotypes.
Campbell Leaper research on
gender differences: 5-11-98
http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/97-98/05-11/leaper.htm
This web site is an article that discusses how
gender often does
matter in communications between parents and children. UCSC (University of
California-Santa Cruz) researchers find that differences in communication
styles are not uniform. Instead they believe that the differences may be
related to the conversation topics men and women select.
http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/bucholtz/lng/
The Language and
Gender Page provides information and resources about language and gender
studies, an interdisciplinary field with connections to anthropology, cultural
studies, education, ethnic studies, linguistics, literary studies, psychology,
sociology, and women’s studies.
http://members.tripod.com/studies/speechgroup/treva.htm
This website offers
several solutions for gender language differences, for verbal communication,
and for non-verbal communication. It simply provides a lists of awarenesses,
characteristics, and differences.
Gender
Differences in Parent-Child Emotional Narratives
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2294/2000_Feb/63787373/p1/article.jhtml
In
this article, Fivush studies the Parent-Child interaction during emotional
narratives. In her research, she differentiates the various ways in which boys
and girls tell their stories. Furthermore, Fivush studies the mannerisms and
language patterns of mothers and fathers when interacting with their children.
Sex
Roles: A Journal of Research: Gender Differences in Emotional Languages in
Picture Books
http://www.findarticles.com/m2294/34_40/54710016/p1/article.jhtml
This article
analyzes the strong influence of gender stereotypes in children's picture books
on its readers. The study focuses on "character prevalence in titles,
pictures and central role, and on gender differences in the types of activities
associated with the characters."
Dyad
Gender Differences in Preadolescents' Creative Stories
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2294/2000_July/67051591/p1/article.jhtml
This
article compares the creative stories written by individuals to creative
stories written by a pair of same- or other-gender partners. The study focuses
on the content (overt aggression, verbal aggression, relational aggression,
pro-social behavior, negative emotion, positive emotion, and neutral/other) and
the effects of the partner "variable" on the contextual approach of
the stories.
Gender
Differences in Communication
http://www.towson.edu/~vanfoss/wmcomm.htm
This site
offers a list of questions about the gender differences, and then offers a
brief but comprehensive look at each point.
The questions include: Do men and women differ in their communication
experiences? Who talks the most? Who interrupts? Is there a "women's
language" connoting uncertainty and deference? Does it matter? And more!
Gender
and Third Party Abuse in Schools
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~kbirks//gender/viol/ofv3.htm
Out of
Australia, this Website documents an example of gender and third party abuse in
schools and communities. The story and
the following commentary bring up several issues surround gender stereotypes
and perceptions made by students, parents, and teachers. The story reveals gender generalizations
that also surround language and peer interaction.
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/ellens/Gender/pap/node18.html
This site offers some hypothetical explanations for
the reasons behind gender in language. Also, some gender-neutral terms are
offered and a summary on the issue of gender in language.
Gender Issues in Children's
Literature
http://www.kidsource.com/education/gender.issues.L.A.html
This is a wonderful site, especially for those of
us who are going to be teachers. This website discusses how the ways in which
genders are portrayed in children's books contributes to the image children
develop of their gender roles.
The
Struggle for Gender-Free Language: Is
It Over Yet?
http://www.eeicommunications.com/eye/gender.html
This site looks at how all
current style manuals address in one form or another the need for bias-free,
inclusive language. Most writers and editors deal with this issue regularly and
have installed mental alarm systems that go off when they sense bias or
something that can be construed as bias.
Gender Issues in the Language
Arts Classroom
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/ieo/digests/d136.html
This website provides an ERIC Digest #136 reveals
that teachers differ in their perspectives on the role they should play in
addressing gender issues, which is related to their individual beliefs about
the nature of gender difference.
Gender Issues: What's In A Word?
Grades 5 - 7
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamedia/genword.htm
This is another great site, that shows level grades
5 - 7 objectives to sensitize students to the ways in which the language in the
media can imply inequality between men and women.
Gender-Neutral Pronoun Frequently Asked Questions (GNP FAQ)
http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp
This website offers a comprehensive discussion of
gender-neutral/gender-free pronouns in English over the centuries, such as
'sie', 'hir', 'ey', 'zie', singular their, and many others. This is a very
unique and informative site.
Gender
Differences in K-12 Education
http://arcweb.gsu.edu/csp_gender.htm
This website
identifies “the gender gaps in K-12 education that have been reported in
literature.” It provides information on
the gender gap in math, science, and graduation gaps, as well as gaps in
self-esteem levels, and personal perceptions of ability. This website also provides links to theories
that explain gender gaps in education and conclusions and recommendations
towards decreasing or eliminating gender gaps in education.
Gender
Differences in Childhood
http://www.students.haverford.edu/wmbweb/writings/cegender.html
This website
explores “significant gender experiments in psychological theory “completed by
Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg.” It
uses actual dialogue and conversation between children so as to further explain
the gender differences found in young children.
Gender,
Language, and CMC
http://research.haifa.ac.il/~jmjaffe/genderpseudocmc/gender
This website
explains the “socialized conceptions of how women and men speak differently as
well as how persons of different cultures express themselves.” It explains how women tend to use more
emotional language as well as the distinctive differences found between men and
women vocabularies. This website also
offers other links to socio-emotional and relational communication differences
as well as pseudonyms and managing identity.
Differences in
Maternal and Paternal Behavior
http://www.leaderu.com/fatherfacts/differences.html
This website
explores the many differences found between father-infant interactions and
mother-infant interactions. It stresses
the fact that fathers are more into active play with children while mothers
tend to take on the role of a calm, nurturing caregiver. Information is also provided on how to
purchase the Father Facts catalogue so as to gain further knowledge on the
differences in maternal and paternal behaviors.
Behavior due to
Sex Correlated Differences
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/ellens/Gender/pap/node12.html
This website
provides information on the different communication styles and the differences
in socializing patterns with co-workers.
Along with each statement about a particular difference between men and
women, there is a link, which provides specific information in terms of
research experiments or statistics for each individual difference
mentioned. Some links also provide a
list of other resources so as to further one’s knowledge on gender differences
in communication styles.
IMPACT
STATEMENTS:
Megan Arundel
Before doing
this project, I was not aware of the abundance of research that has been done
on the language difference between men and women. We found many different web sites that dealt with gender issues
in the classrooms as well as in children’s picture books. I never realized that many children’s books
have stereotypical gender roles that affect the way that children think. This project brought these issues to my
attention. I am glad that I am aware of
these differences and will use this knowledge in the future.
Jason Edelheit
I found it most
beneficial to go through the process of making perhaps the most popular
information-sharing tool of this cyber age.
Websites have become an easily accessed, widespread element of education
today. The array of topics on the World
Wide Web is limitless. In regards to
our topic, I learned how pervasive misperceptions, generalizations, and stereotypes
surrounding gender are in schools and society.
The web provided examples of gender differences, other resources, and
advocacy information.
Carrie A. Mitchell
When I started
the search for the websites, I was afraid I was not going to find much of anything.
I was really surprised and relieved to discover so many interesting and
informative websites on this topic. Gender issues and language truly is an
international problem, from the US to China to Australia, and this project has
opened my eyes to that. I also found it really neat to learn more about how I,
as a future educator, can work with my students to stop the issues and problems
that have developed within gender issues and language.
Bridget Nicholson
I learned much useful information by completing
this project. I was never aware of the
drastic differences found between men and women. After completing this project, and learning all these
differences, I have now become much more aware and tolerant of the opposite
sex. I found this project to be very
interesting, especially in regards to the differences found in communication
and behavior. In addition to this, I
also learned how to create a web page, something I would have never completed
on my own.