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The power of sexist language

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The power of sexist language, affecting women and girlsSexist language influences women all through their lives, not just as children.

The ‘Ban Bossy’ campaign has taken off.

Launched by Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg, ‘Ban Bossy’ is a campaign to stop negative language influencing how young girls perceive themselves.

‘When a little boy asserts himself,’ the website says, ‘he’s called a “leader”.

‘Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded “bossy”.

‘Words like ‘bossy’ send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up.

‘By middle school [secondary school], girls are less interested in leading than boys – a trend that continues into adulthood.’

But it’s not just young girls who are affected by sexist language.

Writing in the Guardian recently, Jess Zimmerman highlighted the results of an informal survey conducted by technology CEO Kieran Snyder of 278 employee performance reviews from a range of technology companies.

It revealed that women who work in technology fields are getting pulled up on the very same actions and characteristics which allow men to succeed.

Even in the positive reviews of women, criticism of the woman’s personality was highly likely.

Words such as ‘abrasive’, ‘judgemental’, ‘strident’, ‘bossy’, and ‘irrational’ came up again and again in reviews of women – and they were instructed to step back and ‘let others shine’.

For the men, however, suggestions for further development took pride of place.

This, Zimmerman argued, is what Sheryl Sandberg has missed with her ‘ban bossy’ campaign: the inclusion of women in masculine-dominated industries who are still hearing that their leadership qualities are not valued.

“We tend to talk about the “pipeline problem” of women in science and technology as if the only difficulty is funnelling girls into the pipe, at which point they can just waterslide into the pool of gainful employment,” Zimmerman said.

“But the problem is that the pipeline is plugged.

“Anyone who slides all the way to the end will fetch up against a blockage of lazy, retrogressive attitudes about how women should behave.”

It’s easier to focus on ‘banning bossy’ for young girls, Zimmerman pointed out, because they are unthreatening and not going to take anyone’s jobs.

However if women who make it into ‘boys’ club’ industries such as science and technology are still being treated with the same language, we’ve got it wrong.

Also writing for the Guardian recently, Emily Saner pointed out the broader terms which are reserved only for women, including ‘feisty’, ‘fierce’, ‘bossy’, ‘flounce’, ‘nag’, ‘whine’ and ‘hysterical’.

Perhaps worst of all, however, is the media’s insistence on focusing on a professional woman’s position in relation to her family as her defining feature.

This was showcased most recently when a newspaper reported on the appointment of Rona Fairhead to the position of BBC Trust chair.

Fairhaid has a long list of prior achievements to her name – including being the former chair and CEO of the Financial Times group and a non-executive director of HSBC and PepsiCo.

But the newspaper in question decided to ignore these and instead plump for the title: ‘Mother of three poised to lead the BBC.’

It doesn’t take a degree in linguistics to see how easily language can be used to downgrade the characteristics and achievements of women, and what a powerful tool it can be – is – in subtly propagating sexism.

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