How many times have you heard the saying “Hey guys!” used to address both men and women? When you think about, a lot of the phrases that are used on a daily basis are specific to addressing men yet women answer to them as well. It seems that women either don’t care to notice or have already been conditioned to not realize the largely masculine langue that is used regularly.
Some people may think that using terms like “mailman,” phrases like “Come on, guys!” or even using the noun “man” to be synonymous to both men and women as normal and not a big deal. However, Laurel Richardson, emeritus professor of sociology at Ohio State University, prescribes that using terms that can be exclusively masculine for both men and women subconsciously encourages male dominance over women. The term “he” or “man” can be used in the place of “humanity” yet, when hearing a sentence that uses the term “he” it is usually associated with the visualization of a man, not both men and women. Richardson claims that the absence of the women in a situation that should include both men and women prevents women from full autonomy and perpetuates men to have feelings of dominance over women.
Although there are many factors that contribute to equality between men and women, it’s hard to believe that the way we speak is one of them. We may not ever change the way we speak and there is no guarantee that changing the way we speak will change the world we live in. Regardless, it is imperative to know just how our actions, including our words, have the power to shape our frame of mind.