Tucker, Joshua

Speiser

English 101

Sep 28, 2023

Summary-Response Essay

Liu Jingxia, affiliated with China Three Gorges University, discusses gender

discrimination in Standard English in her article, “On the Gender Discrimination in English.”

Jingxia first explains how English was created at a time where women were seen as subordinate

to men. The idea of discrimination against women was deeply rooted and reflected in the

language; gender discrimination in language strengthens discrimination against women, so

research should be made to help people understand gender discrimination in language to help

them form their own views on the subject. Jingxia says that by analyzing the origin of gender

discrimination in English, we will have a better understanding of the relationship between

language and society, thus enabling us to take the necessary actions to eliminate this relationship.

Jingxia proceeds to list several types of words we should avoid when speaking to others to help

eliminate gender discrimination. She says we should avoid the use of male pronouns that replace

two genders, such as, “A teacher should be responsible for his students,” or “Everyone can have

a happy life if he keeps positive toward whatever comes.” Additionally, Jingxia also says we

should avoid words demeaning towards women, such as, “little woman,” “the weaker sex,” and

“timid woman.” Jingxia hopes for three things: the elimination of gender discrimination in

language, the eradication of gender discrimination among the common people, and equality

between men and women in society. While I agree people need to use gender neutral pronouns to

avoid discrimination, I do not believe the English language itself is derogatory. I believe
discrimination in English is dependent on the way you use the language, rather than the language

itself.

Rob Jenkins, an associate professor of English at Georgia State University’s Perimeter

College, makes a good point in his article, “We must help students master SAE.” He says, “The

only purpose of language is to communicate, and if the language or dialect you use in a particular

situation allows you to do so, then it is effective.” Language is constantly evolving, and linguistic

norms have changed over the years. There was a time when certain aspects of English were

discriminatory in nature, however, I do not believe that is the case anymore. For example, words

such as, “mankind” or “man-power” are generally accepted to be inclusive terms, despite them

being spelled with “man.” If words like these come off as discriminatory, it would more likely be

a result of the tone and/or the way the word was structured in the sentence, rather than the

spelling of the word itself. An example Jingxia brings up in her article to support her claim is

when she says, “Women are often asked, ‘What does your husband do?’ But no one would

venture to ask a man, ‘what does your wife do?’ If someone asks such a question, the man who is

asked will be surprised to say, ‘she is my wife, and being my wife is her job.’” Jingxia goes on to

talk about how this shows Western Women have been placed in a subordinate position, and how

this has become a social norm. However, Jingxia is blaming the wrong thing here; the

discrimination perpetrated in her example would be the fault of the man that said it, not the

language itself. The Western World, ironically, is one the few places in the world where this kind

of attitude towards women is NOT a social norm, at least not anymore. Most western men would

have enough integrity to not say something so blatantly discriminatory like “being my wife is her

job.”
 One point Jingxia brings up that I do agree with is that it’s important for people to use

gender neutral pronouns when they are needed, instead of defaulting to only using one gender

pronoun. Going back to my previous examples, words like “mankind” or “man-power” don't

need gender neutral variants in my opinion since they are already understood as being inclusive

to both genders. However, one of the examples Jingxia used does need revision to be gender

neutral; she says, “A teacher should be responsible for his students.” It would have been better to

replace “his” for “their” in this example. Sabine Sczesny et al., discusses a solution to this

problem in their article, “Can Gender-Fair Language Reduce Gender Stereotyping and

Discrimination?” Sczesny et al. propose two strategies to help create fairness in the English

language. Sczesny et al. writes, “In general, different strategies can be used to make language

gender-fair and avoid detrimental effects of masculine generics: neutralization, feminization and

a combination of the two.” Neutralization is achieved by replacing masculine forms of words

with neutral forms instead; for example, replacing policeman with police officer. Feminization,

on the other hand, is achieved by specifying a female pronoun when referring to fields typically

dominated by men; for example, instead of “professor,” one would specify “woman professor.”

These two strategies can help create a more gender-fair language; if we can change our dialects

to use more neutral gender pronouns, gender fairness in English can be greatly improved.
Works Cited

• Jingxia, L. (2019) On the gender discrimination in English - researchgate,

ResearchGate. Available at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336214737_On_the_Gender_Discrimination_in

_English (Accessed: 27 September 2023).

• Jenkins, R. (2018) We must help students master standard English. Available at:

https://ucarecdn.com/8c7e3c82-724d-481f-8b1f-2aed511190fc/ (Accessed: 27 September

2023).

• Sczesny, S., Formanowicz, M. and Moser, F. (2016) Can gender-fair language reduce

gender stereotyping and discrimination?, Frontiers. Available at:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00025/full (Accessed: 27

September 2023).