Language and Gender

Benjamin Fagard, Cristina Gil, Rita Faria, Raquel Meister Ko Freitag, Antonio Chenoll, Grauben Navas, Gabriele Diewald, Daniel Elmiger, Machteld Meulleman, Ana Margarida Abrantes, Christin Schütze, Olga Steriopolo, Hélène Giraudo, Aurélia Morel, Thom Westveer, Marine Delaborde, Auphélie Ferreira, Loïc Grobol, Olga Se

• Publisher: Universidade Católica Editora
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9789725410820
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book explores the linguistic representation of gender and how gender asymmetries in language structure both mirror and further drive the imbalance of power and visibility of gender groups in society. These inequalities may also impact the way we conceptualize gender, potentially contributing to the perpetuation of gender disparities. By examining the intricate relations between language, gender, and society, this book aims to shed light on some of the many ways language shapes perceptions, relations, and social structures.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. Language, Gender and Society: How Language Issues Reflect Societal Ones
• Gender in Portuguese Sign Language: the cultural implications of its construction and the linguistic effects of segregation in the Portuguese Deaf community.
• “Most voted women” – Representations of gender in the Portuguese media coverage of the 2021 Presidential elections
• Gender-neutral language in Brazilian’s Federal Draft Laws
• The Evolution of Gender Representation in Two Editions of a Spanish as a Foreign Language Textbook
• 2. Changing Norms: System and Evolution in Modern European Languages
• Gender-fair language in German – current tendencies and problems
• Marquage et généricité : morphologie prescriptive, descriptive et créative en français et en allemand
• How gender-fair are gender-neutralizing and feminization strategies? Grammatical gender choices in Netherlandic vs Belgian Dutch sports press on women’s football
• The gender asterisk in German: the sensorial impact of linguistic change
• 3. Empirical Approaches to Gender and Language
• Feminine grammatical forms as gender-fair language in German: A study of the social gender typicality of role and occupation nouns
• Autrice, auteure, auteur? Between social norms, usage and morphological awareness
• Semantic gender agreement: French versus Germanic languages
• Use and perception of inclusive language: A polarizing issue?