Gender, language, and the separation of public and private space: Morocco as a case study

Social groups project and publicize their identities in the public space which allows an extension of their private lives. However, this projection is in certain situations inadequate. There has been an indisputable observation regarding the distinction between the domestic (private) setting, to which women were traditionally restricted, and the non-domestic (public) setting, which was occupied by men. As a result, women are expected to be talkative and assertive in the intimate living space (private), and timid in exposed spaces (public). This assumption is the result of gender and language-related ideologies that language users adopt as established beliefs and the consequence of gender analysis as a dichotomous matter. This opposition of public and private space is commonly associated with socially positioned linguistic ideologies, cultural practices, traditions, and religious and other discourses. This study allows us to focus on discourse analysis. We are interested in the analysis of written and spoken language concerning the socio-economic context to understand the use of language in everyday situations. Thus, this research objective consists of breaking down the language used by women in the public and private spheres. The specific areas concerned are linguistic and gender literature while applying our research to the Moroccan context. By choosing the Moroccan women as a case study, we attempt to understand and analyze this commonly promoted and blurred image of women in the public space. Moreover, concepts such as level of education, gender, religion, and marital status will be taken into consideration as variables for comparison between these groups of women