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This collection of essays deals with the interplay of language and social change, asking the question: How can language and society be made gender equal? The contributors examine the critical role of language in the lives of white women and women of color in the United States. Since language pervades many dimensions of women's lives, this study takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the issues considered.
The volume is divided into three sections. The first, "Liberating Language," focuses on the active role women had in altering the extent of linguistic sexism in English during the 1970s. A second section, "Identity Creation," deals with the alteration of that portion of language which serves to name women and their experiences. The final section, "Women of Color," offers a rare and timely look at the particular problems confronted by minority women. It argues that women of color have different problems and different links to language than white middle-class women.
"The connections that the book makes among language change, social change, and individual change ("identity") are important contributions to the literature on gender and language. The section on minority women's experiences is significant in suggesting ways in which such changes have differed for different groups of women in the U.S."— Marsha Houston Stanback
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Liberating Language
This New Species That Seeks a New Language: On Sexism in Language and Language Change
Nancy M. Henley
Linguistic Disruption: He/She, S/He, He or She, He-She
Betty Lou Dubois and Isabel Crouch
Guidelines Against Sexist Language: A Case History
Alleen Pact Nilsen
Appendix: Guidelines for Nonsexist Use of Language
Resources for Liberating the Curriculum
Barbara Withers
Appendix I: Recommendations to Liberate the Curriculum
Appendix II: Resource Tools to Liberate the Curriculum
Part II. Identity Creation
Surnaming: The Struggle for Personal Identity
Joyce Penfield
Renaming: Vehicle for Empowerment
Nan Van Den Bergh
Women Take Back the Talk
Cheris Kramarae and Mercilee M. Jenkins
Part III. Women of Color
The Role of American Indian Women in Cultural Continuity and Transition
Bea Medicine
Language and Female Identity in the Puerto Rican Community
Ana Celia Zentella
Informal Conversation Topics Among Urban Afro-American Women
Kikanza Nuri Robins and T. Jean Adenika
Postscript
Notes on the Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Topics