Every chairman for himself? : A Study of the Influence of Feminist Language Planning on Written Media Language

Abstract

The present thesis explores the effects of feminist language planning on written media language, by examining the influence of feminist guidelines on newspaper style manuals and on the work of journalists. Due to space restrictions, the focus is placed on one of the features repeatedly denounced as gender-biased by feminists, namely the use of the suffix –man in occupational titles, such as chairman. This study is based on authentic data extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and reveals a tendency on the part of journalists to relinquish the use of gender-marked masculine occupational titles and to adopt gender-neutral terms instead. The intricacy in the system of forces influencing the adoption of feminist proposals is brought to light. Results show that even though feminist language planners have succeeded in raising worldwide awareness about the gender bias present in the English language, the gender-fair terms and structures that they promote have not necessarily reached the status of ‘preferred alternatives’, particularly within the sphere of American journalism.