Just Reading? How Gender-Fair Language Triggers Readers' Use of Gender-Fair Forms

Köser, Sara; Kuhn, Elisabeth A.; Sczesny, Sabine (2015). Just Reading? How Gender-Fair Language Triggers Readers' Use of Gender-Fair Forms. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 34(3), pp. 343-357. Sage Publications 10.1177/0261927X14561119

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Gender-fair language, that is, referring to men and women with symmetrical linguistic forms, has been found to promote gender equality, but it is largely unknown which factors help make gender-fair forms more common in everyday life. Two studies examined whether speakers of German used more gender-fair forms after reading a text with gender-fair wording (vs. masculine generics vs. no personal nouns vs. another topic). Both studies showed consistently that women used more gender-fair forms after reading the gender-fair text than the other texts, whereas men did not. Men employed more gender-fair forms only after being made aware of these forms (Study 2). To conclude, merely reading gender-fair texts enhances women’s inclination to use gender-fair language, whereas men need to be made aware of this type of language use. Both studies highlight the importance of using gender-fair language frequently and consistently in everyday life.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Köser, Sara, Sczesny, Sabine

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

0261-927X

Publisher:

Sage Publications

Language:

English

Submitter:

Irène Gonce-Gyr

Date Deposited:

25 Mar 2015 09:56

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:44

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/0261927X14561119

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.65555

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/65555

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