1. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender Language and Social Contexts: LANGUAGE and GENDER

2. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender A person’s sex is biologically determined and is categorized by the terms male and female.

3. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender A person’s gender, however, is a social construction that refers to stereotypical models of behaviour. These may be culturally defined by degrees of masculine/feminine behaviour. Such conventions may be referred to as ideologies or sets of beliefs relevant to certain social groups.

4. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender Sometimes, gender characteristics are directly related to a person’s sex. For example, child-rearing has often been assigned to the female as it is the role of the woman to carry and give birth to babies.

5. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender Other preconceptions, however, serve to significantly marginalize or diminish the role of women. Simone de Beauvoir, for example, refers in her work The Second Sex to the Western practice of referring to male characteristics as the Norm, and those of the female as Other.

6. © Oxford University Press 2008 Language and Gender We absorb the attitudes and values of our society, or ideologies, through the words we learn as we grow up. Discuss in class some gender stereotypes and whether they reflect our society today.