An exploratory review of gender ideologies and sexism in the Ga language

Authors

  • Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey University of Ghana, Legon

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.19614

Keywords:

Linguistic Sexism, Gender ideologies, Ambivalent Sexism Theory, Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Although research on language and gender has focused largely on gendered languages, not much attention has been given to genderless languages. The current study attempts to explore gender ideologies and sexism in Ga, which is a genderless language. Based on an interdisciplinary approach to this multifaceted problem, the author aims at critically reviewing the construction and representation of gender identities through language using Glick and Fiske’s ambivalent sexism theory and feminist critical discourse analysis of data collected from focus group discussions and interviews. Among other things, this study shows how discourses of biological essentialism are used to justify what is presented as a natural gender order. 

Author Biography

  • Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey, University of Ghana, Legon

    Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey was born in Accra, Ghana. She is a Spanish lecturer at the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Ghana. She obtained her doctoral degree in Spanish Language and General Linguistics from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid. Her main areas of research are critical discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and language and gender.

References

Allport, G. W. (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Ankra Nee-Adjabeng, E. A. (1966) Agwase? Wiem?i k? Ab?i Kom?i. Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages.

Bem, S. L. (1993) The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Bloomberg, D. L. and Volpe, M. (2008) Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Roadmap from Beginning to End. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Braun, F. (2001) The communication of gender in Turkish. In M. Hellinger and H. Bußmann (eds) Gender across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men (vol. 1) 283–310. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.9.17bra

Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power. New York: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routeledge.

Fairclough, N. (2010) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Harlow: Longman. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203809068.ch1

Fiske, S. T. (1993) Controlling other people: the impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist 48: 621–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.6.621

Friedan B. (1962) The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton.

García Meseguer, Á. (1984) Lenguaje y discriminación sexual. Madrid: Montesinos.

Gil Flores, J., Jimenez García, E. and Rodriguez Gomez, G. (1994) Analysis of the data obtained in research through focus groups. Enseñanza 12: 183–99.

Glick, P. and Fiske, S. T. (1996) The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70: 491–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491

Glick, P. and Fiske, S. T. (1997) Hostile and benevolent sexism: measuring ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly 21: 119–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00104.x

Gramsci, A. (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart.

Hellinger. M. and Bußmann, H. (eds) (2001) Gender across Languages: The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men (vol. 1). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Company.

Hochschild, A. R. and Machung, A. (2003) The Second Shift. New York: Penguin Books.

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. ([1980]2003) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470993.001.0001

Lazar, M. M. (2005) Politicizing gender in discourse: feminist CDA as political perspective and praxis. In M. M. Lazar (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse 1–28. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lazar, M. M. (2007) Feminist critical discourse analysis: articulating a feminist discourse praxis. Critical Discourse Studies 4: 141–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405900701464816

Lazar, M. M. (2008) Language, communication and the public sphere: a perspective from feminist critical discourse analysis. In R. Wodak and V. Koller (eds) Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere 89–112. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Lopez García, A. and Morant, R. (1991) Gramática Femenina. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.

Mills, S. (2008) Language and Sexism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511755033

Pavlidou, T. S. (2011) Gender and interaction. In R. Wodak; B. Johnstone and P. E. Kerswill (eds) The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics 412–28. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446200957.n29

Philips, S. U. (2003) The power of gender ideologies in discourse. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender 252–76. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch11

Robertson, C. C. (1984) Sharing the Same Bowl: A Socioeconomic History of Women and Class in Accra, Ghana. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Stokoe, E. (2012) ‘You know how men are’: description, categorization and common knowledge in the anatomy of a categorial practice. Gender and Language 6: 233–55. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i1.233

Stubbs, M. (1996) Text and Corpus Analysis: Computer Assisted Studies of Language and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

Sunderland, J. (2004) Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230505582

Talbot, M. M. (2003) Gender stereotypes: reproduction and challenge. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender 468–86. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch20

Tannen, D. (2007) Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511618987

Van Dijk, T. A. (2001) Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, D. Schiffrin, and H. Hamilton (eds) Handbook of Discourse Analysis 352–71. Oxford: Blackwell.

Published

2017-06-20

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Lomotey, B. A. (2017). An exploratory review of gender ideologies and sexism in the Ga language. Gender and Language, 11(2), 227–254. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.19614