The impact of gendered language on cognition

This talk addresses the question of how gendered language forms influence recipients’ cognition and thereby contribute to gender stereotyping and the social discrimination of women. In many languages masculine generics are used to represent human beings in general, for instance, masculine pronouns when gender is irrelevant (e.g., the user ... he), or masculine role nouns for mixed-gender groups (e.g., statesmen, policemen). In contrast, gender-inclusive forms treat women and men symmetrically by neutralization, for example, by replacing masculine forms (policeman) with gender unmarked forms (police officer), or by feminization to make female referents visible, for example, by replacing he with she/he. The talk informs about how gendered language impacts mental representations of women and men, the consequences of mental representations on self-perception and perception by others, and the correspondence of language structure and language use with gender equality in societies