Sexism in Medical Communication

Communication is one of the most essential skills of the medical profession, however, it is a tool through which sexism and gender discrimination are promoted and reproduced. There is often the perception in medicine and surgery that gender inequity centres on lifestyle, family responsibilities, and childcare issues. However, this chapter highlights that deeply engrained biases in medical communication still exist, and are perpetrated by institutions and individuals, women included. Awareness of gendered language must be raised and highlighted in order to make a change. It is achievable to speak in gender-neutral ways that are inclusive and precise as to not conjure biased attitudes towards women in medicine. Social change must be pursued at the level of the institution, the cultural structure, and at the interactional level of gender.

FEMINISM AND BIBLE TRANSLATION

The article considers the development of translation ideas as viewed from a gender-studies perspective. The author elucidates three lines of feminist approach towards the Bible, namely: its rejection as the book refl ecting the masculine bias; the application of gender critique in order to make manifest and subsequently deconstruct its patriarchal nature; the use of “depatriarchalizing principle” which lies in the close reading of the Bible in order to reveal its true meaning of equality. The last approach entails signifi cant implications and possibilities for translators who can make the Bible “inclusive” and its women visible. Key words: feminism, gender studies, Bible translation, inclusive language, depatriarchalizing principle, gender-neutral translation.

GENDER NEUTRALITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: TEACHER TALK AND COURSEBOOKS

Постановка проблемы. В статье рассматривается феномен гендерной нейтральности при обучении английскому языку и представлены результаты анализа речи учителей и содержания учебников. Целью данного исследования является выявление степени осведомленности учителей английского языка в России о гендерной нейтральности в английском языке и существующих стратегиях гендерно нейтрального речевого поведения на занятиях по английскому языку, а также выявление того, насколько содержание учебников по английскому языку соответствует принципам гендерной нейтральности. Результаты. Результаты исследования демонстрируют, что многие учителя и авторы учебников используют гендерно нейтральные лексические и грамматические стратегии, но при этом им не удается избегать гендерных стереотипов и неравной репрезентации персонажей, персоналий и прецедентных имен. Таким образом, предположение, что учителя английского языка используют в своей речи гендерно окрашенные лексические и грамматические средства, а также гендерные стереотипы на занятиях по английскому языку, частично подтвердилось: более 60% учителей не владеют гендерно нейтральным речевым поведением в достаточной степени. В отношении содержания учебников гипотеза также частично подтвердилась: 60% учебников содержат гендерные стереотипы, а в 90% проанализированных учебников встретился дисбаланс мужских и женских персонажей, персоналий и прецедентных имен (в сторону мужских). Выводы. Представляется целесообразной разработка особых рекомендаций по гендерно нейтральному речевому поведению на занятиях по английскому языку для учителей английского языка в России, в которых были бы учтены некоторые аспекты гендерной нейтральности в английском языке. Данные рекомендации должны соотноситься с российским социокультурным контекстом и включать в себя все необходимые объяснения о специфике гендерной нейтральности и ее важности в англоязычном контексте. State of the problem. The article explores the phenomenon of gender neutrality in language education and presents the results of classroom discourse analysis and coursebook content analysis. The purpose of the study is to reveal to what extent teachers of English as a foreign language (L2 teachers) in Russia use gender-neutral language and gender-neutral behaviour strategies in the classroom and how gender neutrality is presented in the English coursebooks (created both by Russian and international authors). The novelty is determined by the fact that this is the first attempt to analyse teacher talk and English coursebook contents in terms of their gender neutrality in the Russian socio-cultural context. Results. Results show that many lessons and coursebooks analysed use some gender-neutral vocabulary and grammar strategies, but contain gender-stereotyping and unequal representation of personalia and case names. The proposed hypothesis that English teachers in Russia use gendered lexical and grammatical means, as well as gender stereotypes in the classroom was validated to a certain extent. The overall result demonstrates that more than 60% of teachers are not gender-neutral. As for the coursebooks, most of them seem to be gender-neutral in terms of grammar, and half of them seem to be gender-neutral in terms of vocabulary. At the same time, 60% of coursebooks contain gender stereotypes and 90% do not represent males and females equally (with male superiority in number). Conclusion. Special guidelines on gender-neutral English in the classroom for English teachers in Russia should be created to provide some recommendations on the use of gender-neutral language and the use of coursebooks. These guidelines should refer to the Russian socio-cultural context and contain all the necessary footnotes for teachers to explain to them the importance of gender neutrality in the English language and to help them to explain the phenomenon to the students, who might experience certain challenges while acquiring the concept of gender neutrality that is only minimally represented in the Russian language.

Space and Language of Women

Language is an active media to register all the human activities in its core and insist people to strictly act and think according to those frameworks in the language. We can notice the micro politics of the dominance of power and inability of slavery in the language. In the medium of language, we can see the elements of dominance in the form of caste, religion, politics, economics...etc but the elements of gender dominance in the language is more evident than other things. Women gender are totally unaware of those gender discriminated language elements in a common language. This article emphasizes how to eliminate male gender dominated elements in a language and the need to mould a gender-neutral language. And also tried to point out the space restrictions put on female gender and impact of the restrictions recorded in a language.

Assessing women’s risk of recidivism: An investigation into the predictive validity of the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR) with matched samples of community-sentenced women and men

<p>Although men and women share risk factors for offending, some scholars claim these factors operate differentially by gender and that certain proposed women-specific risk factors are neglected in the existing gender-neutral risk assessment tools. The present research evaluated one such gender-neutral risk assessment tool used by New Zealand Department of Corrections: The Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR; Serin, 2007; Serin, Mailloux, & Wilson, 2012). The research was comparative and examined the predictive validity of the DRAOR for breaches of sentence and criminal reconvictions in matched samples of New Zealand women and men who had served community supervision sentences. Cox regression and AUC analyses showed the initial DRAOR had mixed predictive validity and the proximal DRAOR comparative predictive validity across gender. Additionally, the proximal DRAOR assessment consistently outperformed the initial DRAOR in the prediction of reconvictions for both women and men. Further, offenders made significant change on the DRAOR between two assessment points and overall the change made on the DRAOR was significantly related to reconvictions for women and men. For both samples, the RoC*RoI did not predict breach reconvictions; however, the proximal DRAOR TS provided incremental predictive validity above the RoC*RoI for criminal reconvictions. To conclude, the research supports the continued use of the DRAOR as a risk prediction tool with community-sentenced women and men and thus supports gender neutrality. Further, the research supports the dynamic nature of the DRAOR and highlighted the importance of updating dynamic risk assessments. Additionally, the research recommends that change made on a dynamic risk assessment tool over time be considered useful for predictive purposes for women and men alike.</p>

Assessing women’s risk of recidivism: An investigation into the predictive validity of the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR) with matched samples of community-sentenced women and men

<p>Although men and women share risk factors for offending, some scholars claim these factors operate differentially by gender and that certain proposed women-specific risk factors are neglected in the existing gender-neutral risk assessment tools. The present research evaluated one such gender-neutral risk assessment tool used by New Zealand Department of Corrections: The Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR; Serin, 2007; Serin, Mailloux, & Wilson, 2012). The research was comparative and examined the predictive validity of the DRAOR for breaches of sentence and criminal reconvictions in matched samples of New Zealand women and men who had served community supervision sentences. Cox regression and AUC analyses showed the initial DRAOR had mixed predictive validity and the proximal DRAOR comparative predictive validity across gender. Additionally, the proximal DRAOR assessment consistently outperformed the initial DRAOR in the prediction of reconvictions for both women and men. Further, offenders made significant change on the DRAOR between two assessment points and overall the change made on the DRAOR was significantly related to reconvictions for women and men. For both samples, the RoC*RoI did not predict breach reconvictions; however, the proximal DRAOR TS provided incremental predictive validity above the RoC*RoI for criminal reconvictions. To conclude, the research supports the continued use of the DRAOR as a risk prediction tool with community-sentenced women and men and thus supports gender neutrality. Further, the research supports the dynamic nature of the DRAOR and highlighted the importance of updating dynamic risk assessments. Additionally, the research recommends that change made on a dynamic risk assessment tool over time be considered useful for predictive purposes for women and men alike.</p>