Female Empowerment and the Politics of Language: Evidence Using Gender-Neutral Amendments to Subnational Constitutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Newman ◽  
Stephanie L. DeMora ◽  
Tyler T. Reny
Keyword(s):  
Economic Resources ◽  
Female Empowerment ◽  
Language Politics ◽  
Popular Vote ◽  
Gender Differentials ◽  
Ballot Measures ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Popular Initiative ◽  
Neutral Language

Abstract This letter explores language politics as it concerns gender, and investigates the adoption of amendments that introduce gender-neutral language to subnational constitutions via popular initiative. Embracing theories of female empowerment based on resource acquisition and shrinking gender differentials in economic resources, the authors argue that popular support for these initiatives will be higher in contexts where female and male incomes are closer to parity. The study tests this expectation using city-level historical administrative data in California on Proposition 11 in 1974 – the first American state to hold a popular vote on amending its constitution to include only gender-neutral language. It finds that greater parity in income between women and men is associated with greater voter support for the initiative. This result holds after controlling for conceivable confounders, fails to emerge when analyzing gender-irrelevant ballot measures, and replicates when analyzing similar measures held in three jurisdictions in other states.

Gender Indeterminacy in Translation: the Case of R. L. Stine’s Give Yourself Goosebumps Gamebooks via Portuguese Translation

2018 ◽  
pp. 329-345
Author(s):  
Ana Brígida Paiva
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Second Person ◽  
The North ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Literary Systems ◽  
Second Person Perspective ◽  
Neutral Language

As works of fction, gamebooks offer narrative-bound choices – the reader generally takes on the role of a character inserted in the narrative itself, with gamebooks consequently tending towards being a story told in the second-person perspective. In pursuance of this aim, they can, in some cases, adopt gender-neutral language as regards grammatical gender, which in turn poses a translation challenge when rendering the texts into Portuguese, a language strongly marked by grammatical gender. Stemming from an analysis of a number of gamebooks in R. L. Stine’s popular Give Yourself Goosebumps series, this article seeks to understand how gender indeterminacy (when present) is kept in translation, while examining the strategies used to this effect by Portuguese translators – and particularly how ideas of implied readership come into play in the dialogue between the North-American and Portuguese literary systems.

scholarly journals Language Politics and the Constitution of Racialized Subjects in the Corinthian Church

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-245
Author(s):  
Ekaputra Tupamahu
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Language Politics ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
Sociopolitical Context ◽  
Social Dynamic

This study examines the phenomenon of speaking in tongue(s) in the Corinthian church from the point of view of the politics of language. Instead of seeing tongue(s) as a problem of unintelligible-ecstatic speech, it reconsiders this phenomenon as a linguistic struggle. Tongue(s), in this sense, is a multilingual social dynamic that Paul perceives as chaotic. Special attention is given to the role of language as one of the crucial markers of the ancient Greeks’ collective identity. The barbarians are their imaginative and discursive ‘others’ who do not share their language. It is within this sociopolitical context that the employment of the term βάρβαρος in 1 Cor. 14:11 can be understood as a performative act of constituting racialized subjects. Such discourse is Paul’s political strategy of bringing a monolingual order into the Corinthian church.

scholarly journals Control over resources: A Gender Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-348
Author(s):  
Suchitra S Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Regression Model ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Gender Differentials ◽  
Significant Difference

This paper attempts to test gender differentials in order to ascertain whether access to economic resources makes any difference to the deprivation levels of the households headed by males and by females. The deprivation levels are based on the possessions at the household level of some basic social and physical amenities of life as used in the study conducted by K. Srinivasan and S. K. Mohanty (2004).  The data used is Secondary data taken from the NFHS-2.  The regression model applied in this paper explicitly controls the deprivation levels. The results show that there is no significant difference in male-headed families and female-headed families due to control over resources. 

scholarly journals Pronoun Production Order in a Gender-Neutral Language: A Single Case Study of a Typically Developing Indonesian Child

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Bernard A. J. Jap
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Production Order ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Jakarta Indonesian ◽  
Neutral Language

<p>Research in children with normal language development has shown that there is a certain order in the production and learning of pronominal forms. To one’s knowledge, there has yet to be a study on the pronoun development of Indonesian speaking children whose native language do not distinguish<br />between the nominative-accusative form (e.g. in English, I/me – Indonesian, <em>saya</em>/<em>saya</em>) and at the same time being gender neutral (e.g. in English, he/she – Indonesian, <em>dia</em>/<em>dia</em>). The present study follows the personal pronoun development of a (Jakarta) Indonesian-speaking child from 24 months to 46 months of age.</p>

In their own voices: Development of English as a gender-neutral language

English Today ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janina Brutt-Griffler ◽  
Sumi Kim
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Asian Students ◽  
English Learner ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Neutral Language ◽  
Learning English

This study explores how learning English among one subset of English learners, Asian female international students at US colleges, contributes to the larger project of advancing gender equality. Using their narratives, we ask why Asian female international students invest so much of their identities and effort into learning English. We discuss the ways in which their endeavours may even silently promote the development of English as a gender-neutral language. The population of Asian students offers a compelling case of how the English language is potentially transformed via its spread to this English learner population and how it presents new avenues for identity formation for the growing number of female English users worldwide (cf. Brutt-Griffler, 2010: 232).

scholarly journals Aspects of Gender Neutral Language in Selected English and Polish Translations of the New Testament

Open Theology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Gomola
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Evangelical Christians ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Neutral Language

AbstractGender neutral language has been one of the most hotly debated issues in Bible translation in recent decades, especially in translations into English. The article presents some aspects of this problem expanding the perspective and comparing gender neutral language usage in modern translations of Scripture into English and Polish: the New International Version and the Paulist Bible and the Poznan Bible, with occasional references to other English and Polish translations. Renditions of selected New Testament terms such as anthrōpos, anēr, adelphos/adelphoi and huioi are examined, as well as English and Polish translations of diakoneo when it describes women accompanying Jesus in the synoptic gospels. Translations of “Junia/Junius” (Rom 16:7) are also compared as well as the issue of Phoebe the “deaconess” in Rom 16:1. The author concludes that solutions concerning gender neutral language in English and Polish translations of the Bible, sometimes similar, are not identical due to differences between these languages, due to different socio-linguistic norms characterizing Polish and English audiences respectively and due to the fact that the English translation is addressed to the evangelical Christians, while the Polish ones to the Catholics.

Commentary on the Johannine Prologue

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Newman
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Neutral Language ◽  
Power Of God

This article is a translation of Hildegard's commentary on the Johannine prologue, taken from her Book of Divine Works, with an introduction emphasizing the themes of the divine image and the holiness of the human body as an analogue of both the cosmos and the creative power of God. The note introducing the translation comments on Hildegard's prophetic, pictorial style and explains why her highly gendered thought cannot be rendered in contemporary gender-neutral language.

Language politics in Latin America

AILA Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 76-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanavillil Rajagopalan
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Language Politics ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
The World ◽  
Politics Of Language

This paper is an attempt to take stock of the politics of language as it has been playing out in Latin America, ever since the countries in this region were colonized by European powers, mainly Spain and Portugal. Linguistic imperialism is by no means a new phenomenon in this part of the world. In more recent times, the relentless advance of English as the world’s leading lingua franca has only brought to light the difficult North–South relations that have underpinned the geopolitics of the region.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document