10 Gender, Language, and Work Culture – Shannon Loveless

Shannon Loveless and is a senior majoring in Political Science with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Shannon is a single mother to 4 children, and they have just recently moved back to her hometown of Richmond, IN.  This text excerpt is from a discussion post paper for Dr. Edwina Helton in WOST-W300: Gender and Language. 

Gender, Language, and Work Culture

I honestly never gave much thought about how my gender would affect how people would talk to me, until I got older. When I was a child, it didn’t really matter. The tone and language I often got was because I was sticking my nose into things I shouldn’t have been, and that came from both men and woman, but mainly my grandmother. We’ve all been there, and I’ve passed that trait onto all my children (lucky me). When I was a teenager and getting my first job, I kid you not, one of the managers said, “You’re definitely cute, that’s what we want up front, so you can have the job.” I was a hostess at a restaurant and was 16, so I of course didn’t think much of it. Now as an adult, I pay more attention to how my gender and the language used, especially in my workplace, plays a role in my life.

If we have ads to go over in the modules, I generally look at them last. This time, I dove into the ads first. The first one that immediately caught my eye was the “Stacked for Convenience” ad. Now, I wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised to see how they used a woman’s breast to sell the kitchen appliances. The look on the male’s face says it all. The odds that he cares about the stackable appliances are slim. “Two Bytes are Better than One” was funny in the sense that the two attractive females are made to look like they are taking a bite out of the “nerdy” man’s neck as they pull at his shirt from both sides. What male isn’t going to love that sort of attention? The one that irritated my soul, however, was the “Girls you can be Somebody” ad! As long as you wanted to be a secretary, that is. It lists careers like doctors, lawyers, and executives in large, bold print. Underneath it, though, is where they get ya. These professions want you to work FOR them, not join them in the field. Why would a woman want to do something fulfilling like that? Being the secretary should be good enough if we truly needed to work, right?

As I moved onto the articles this week, I chose “The Hidden Sexism in Workplace Language.” And “Does Gender Determine the Language?” The biggest takeaway for me in the first article was the way women get feedback in their job reviews. It generally tends to be sexist or incredibly vague. I only make a point to talk about this because it has happened to me more often than I would like to admit. It also points out lingering stereotypes in the workplace. While it hasn’t ever bothered me to be called the “right hand” to someone, they generally leave out the “man” or will add the “woman” onto the end. For me, I guess I’m lucky that it happens this way, but for a lot of others it doesn’t, and I can understand why someone (a woman) would get offended if to it constantly happened. Calling everyone at the workplace “guys” hasn’t ever bothered me either. To me, this one is something that just happens. Obama used “folks” a lot and the article deemed this word “safer” than guys, which I guess is true. If you’re in the younger generation, just get used to being called Bro or Bruh all the time. Again, I think even though I think it’s annoying, it’s just one of those words that works for everyone. The second article talked more about the masculine and feminine forms of language. I have always wanted to learn several different languages but have yet to get to the level of “fluent” in any that I have learned. It was for sure interesting to learn that in the Japanese language, (one that I have never had any interest in), the female forms of words begin with the O to show honor and respect to a man that she is speaking to. It’s interesting to see that the younger generations that females are rebelling against this feminine form or language.

I think it’s important for us to start using more gender-neutral language in the workplace. A career is something that we all work so hard to have. Why should our gender make our hard work mean less? Women have come so far in this world, and I have no doubt that we will continue to fight for the rights that we have. We can identify as whoever we want, but I do believe that those identities should be acknowledged. We shouldn’t let the past dictate our futures. What better time to make those changes than now?