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LINGUISTIC SEXISM
IN CURRENT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS:
TIẾNG ANH 10, TIẾNG ANH 11 AND TIẾNG ANH 12

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HANOI, 2014

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M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS F
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Assoc. Prof. Dr.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish, first of all, to express my deepest gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Dai
Quang, my supervisor, who has enthusiastically and generously given me
invaluable assistance and guidance during the process of carrying out the thesis.
The success of my study would have been almost impossible without his support
and encouragement.
My profound thanks are also to all other lecturers for their useful lectures and
materials given during my M.A. course at the Postgraduate Studies Department of
College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, which have
laid the foundation for this research paper.
My special thanks are due to all my colleagues and students at Dong Thanh Upper
Secondary School, Quang Ninh, where I am teaching English now. Their ideas,
opinions and questions have inspired me to undertake this study.
Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my loving wife and son, whose support
and encouragement have seen me through the writing of this thesis.

iii
ABSTRACT
It has been proved that sexism exists in language as well as in language textbooks.

NCTE: National Council of Teachers of English LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Linguistic Sexism in Morphology by Book
Table 2. Linguistic Sexism in Semantics by Book
Table 3. Linguistic Sexism in Syntax (Generic Pronoun Use) by Book
Table 4. Linguistic Sexism in Syntax (Word Order Use) by Book
Table 5. Linguistic Sexism by Book and Category
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
vii

Part B: DEVELOPMENT
5
Chapter 1: Literature Review
5

1.1. Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis
5 1.1.1. Studies of sexism in language in the world
5 1.1.2. Studies of sexism in language in Vietnam
8

1.2. Review of theoretical background
10 1.2.1. Sexism
10 1.2.2. Linguistic Sexism
10 1.2.3. Linguistic Sexism in English
11

Chapter 2: Research Methodology
20

2.1. Research type
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2.2. Research setting
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2.3. Material selection
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2.4. Methods of the research
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2.5. Analytical framework of the study
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2.6. Data collection procedure
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2.7. Data analysis procedure
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2.8. Summary
24
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion
25

3.1. Findings
3.1.2.2. Men are superior and women are secondary
32

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3.1.2.3. Women are dependent and men are independent
33

3.2. Discussion of the findings
34

3.3. Pedagogical implications
37

3.4. Summary
38
Part C: CONCLUSION
39

1. Recapitulation
39

2. Conclusions
39

3. Limitations of the research

refer to all the human beings, she still did not accept. After the lesson, I thought
more about her question and began to agree with her that the sentence was
problematic because the quotation seems to reflect the invisibility of females by
containing the words man and mankind. Neil Armstrong’s use of such words as man
and mankind for all the human beings may make people feel that women are not
present in the achievement. This is a representation of sexism or sex discrimination
in the English language.
It can be easy to find other ways of language use that seem to treat men prior to
women. For example, English users often think of male pronouns automatically
whenever the sex of the person is not known. The pronoun his in the sentence
‘Every student must bring his own book’ is a good example. This is a sexist use of
language, which often suggests an inherent male dominance in many fields of life,
and can reinforce the idea of female inferiority. Although both women and men can
work in various job fields, there is a tendency to associate certain jobs with men or
women. For instance, it is often said ‘A director must do his best for his company’,
but ‘A nurse must treat her patients with kindness.’ Of course, we know that not
every man is a director and not every woman is a nurse. This language use tends to
emphasize the idea that it is not normal for women to be in professional, highly-
paid jobs, and it is not natural for a man to work in such a caring role as a nurse.
Sexism in life is various in forms and different at levels. It is probably most readily
associated with economic issues, such as equal pay for equal work. The role played
by language in maintaining and strengthening sexist values, however, is less widely

2
understood or acknowledged. This is probably because linguistic sexism is much
more deeply rooted and far more subtle than other forms of sexism. The fight for
equality of both women and men in such domains as politics and economy has
worked strongly and successfully but in language it seems to be much weaker and
receive far less attention. All normal people must work and most of them know and
require fair for women and men in labour; all normal people must use language but

Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 ?
2) What message(s) is/ are conveyed via the occurrence of linguistic sexism at
word and phrase levels in these textbooks?
4. Scope of the research
Sexism can be found in various materials, especially in teaching and learning
materials such as textbooks. In Vietnamese English textbooks, to the author’s
knowledge, there has never been any study of sexism before. However, this study
does not mention sexism in all the Vietnamese English textbooks. Besides, the
study can hardly cover a comprehensive analysis of sexism in these English
textbooks because sexism in textbooks may be portrayed in other aspects such as
images for illustration. Neither does the research deal with sexism at all levels of
word, phrase, sentence and discourse. Therefore, this thesis only focuses on
linguistic sexism at word and phrase levels in texts used in three current upper
secondary school English language textbooks: Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh
11 and Tiếng Anh 12 by Hoang Van Van et al.
5. Significance of the research
5.1. Theoretical significance
This research focuses on linguistic sexism in specific English teaching materials
with the hope of contributing to existing knowledge on sexism in language. In
Vietnam, from the first research on sexism in language entitled Sự kỳ thị giới tính

4
trong ngôn ngữ qua cứ liệu tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt (Sexism in language through
English and Vietnamese databases) carried out by Diep (2002), no other
Vietnamese researchers have investigated into the issue in specific types of
language materials. The study would be an illustration of sexism in language used
in a particular context: Vietnamese English textbooks.
5.2. Practical significance
Hopefully, this study may urge Vietnamese educators and textbook designers take
linguistic sexism into serious consideration. They will pay more attention to sexism

sexism in language both in the world and in Vietnam will be discussed.
1.1.1. Studies of sexism in language in the world
Language is not merely a means of exchanging information but it is also an
important means of establishing and maintaining social relationship with other
members of the speech community. Sex-based linguistic variation is an example of
the sort of social function that is fulfilled by language. In fact, sex differences are a
fundamental fact of sociolinguistic life. For example, there are certain forms of
language which are thought to be appropriate only for men to use and other forms
which only women can use. In some cases, these differences depend not only on the
sex of the addresser, but also on the sex of the addressee. According to Fasold
(1990), sex-linked linguistic variation involves ‘the differential use of certain status-
marking forms by sex’ (p. 115).
One of the major issues in sociolinguistic studies has been the relationship between
sex and language and how it is represented. In fact, the study of language and
gender began in 1975 by the publication of three books which have continued to
significantly influence sociolinguistic works: Male/Female Language (M. R. Key),
Language and Women’s Place (R. Lakoff), and Difference and Dominance (Thorne
& Henley). Since then, sociolinguists have fundamentally shown a great deal of

6
interest in sex and language relationship mostly with respect to the presence or
absence in a few languages of linguistic forms that are used only by speakers of one
sex or the other.
Sexism in textbooks has been studied in Europe and America since 1970s. To my
knowledge, the most relevant studies of sexism and its manifestations in ESL/EFL
textbooks that can be tracked down are Hartman and Judd’s (1978) Sexism and
TESOL Materials, Hellinger’s (1980) For Men Must Work, Women Must Weep:
Sexism in English Language Textbooks Used in German Schools, and Porreca’s
(1984) Sexism in Current ESL Textbooks.
Hartman and Judd’s review in 1978 of several then-current TESOL textbooks

to correct sexism had resulted in any positive consequences. The changes, however,
were not what to expect: they found that females portrayed as major characters had
increased only by 2%, up to 16% in the new textbooks. Hoomes (1978) investigated
28 high school literature anthologies for grades 9 through 12 and found evidence
that the overall ratio of total female characters to total male characters in the books
was 1:3.5. She also found that the mean ratio of available professions for females to
those for males was 1:5 in texts and 1:7 in illustrations.
In the 1990s, Peterson & Kroner (1992) conducted an examination of gender biases
in textbooks for psychology and human development. Their findings demonstrated
that representation of work, theory, and behavior of males significantly exceeded
those of females; and females were frequently portrayed in negative and gender-
biased ways. Poulou (1997) explored differences in the discourse roles of men and
women in dialogs of textbooks for teaching Greek as a foreign language to adults.
Her focus on whether sexist differences could affect negatively the pedagogical
value and goals of textbook dialogs and she demonstrated that the effect was quite
obvious.
Most recently in the early 21
st
century, Sydney (2004) investigated gender role
stereotyping in 40 textbooks in primary schools in Tanzania and found that female
characters depicted were fewer compared to males. Bahiyah et al. (2008) found that
children understanding about the world and the relationship within the society were
acquired through Malaysian textbooks, which allowed linguistic sexism and gender

8
roles stereotyping to permeate into the mind of the students and later reproduce in
their everyday life. The study by Otlowski (2003) discussed the importance of
Japanese textbook selection for EFL students with regards to the portrayal of gender
representation in the targeted culture. In many cases, the representation of women in
EFL textbooks in Japan portrayed a stereotypical role of women as mothers and

different points of view on the relation between gender in grammar and sex in
terms of biology. Some agrees that there must be some relation between them
but some others do not. But the thing should be concerned about is the display
of sexism in the use of gender in language. The male pronouns like he, his and
him are used to include both the two sexes in some cases.
ii) Markedness of sex in language: Many words showing the jobs of females
are derived from the words showing the jobs of males. For instance, actress
and waitress are formed by adding the suffix ess to actor and waiter.
iii) Unbalance of words related to females and males in terms of meanings:
Words can have different meanings when they are used to describe men or
women. For example, the word professional has different meaning depending
on sex: he is a professional means he is excellent in a particular aspect while
she is a professional means she is a prostitute.
iv) Sexism in naming/ titles: names and titles are used to show sex and marital
status. In the past, a married woman is entitled Mrs. while Miss is used for an
unmarried one. However, thanks to the fight for equality in using titles, Mrs.
and Miss are now replaced by Ms.
v) Stereotypes of sex in language: Stereotypes in describing females in English
can be found in such words/ phrases as a gorgeous blonde, wives of, devoted to
a husband, looking after husband and children.
The review of the previous studies related to the issue shows that there are not many
researchers in Vietnam concerning sexism in language although it has been a heat
topic in the world sociolinguistic research for some decades now. The first study of
the topic carried out by Diep (2002) provides a general view on sexism in language

10
but there is a shortage of deep investigation into the phenomenon in a specific type
of materials. This has partly urged me to perform the present research.
1.2. Review of theoretical background
1.2.1. Sexism

common assumptions include that all doctors are men, all nurses are women, all
coaches are men, or all teachers are women. This definition seems to be too specific
because it just gives one case of linguistics sexism – sex exclusiveness in language.
Atkinson (1993) defines linguistic sexism as ‘a wide range of verbal practices,
including not only how women are labeled and referred to, but also how language
strategies in mixed sex interaction may serve to silence or depreciate women as
interactants’ (p. 403). This definition appears to be too broad for the purpose of the
present study because only the language in the upper secondary school English
textbooks used in Vietnam now is investigated in this research.
If sexism refers to attitudes and/or behaviours that denigrate one sex to the
exaltation of the other as being mentioned in the previous part, then it follows
Miller and Swift’s (1976) statement that ‘sexist language is any language … that
assumes the inherent superiority of one sex over the other’ (p. 291).
However, for the purposes of the study, it is interesting to note that these definitions
have one thing in common: linguistic sexism is the portrayal of women and/or men
that intentionally or unintentionally overvalues one sex and/or devalues the other.
Any use of words, phrases, and expressions that unnecessarily differentiate between
females and males or exclude, trivialize, or diminish one particular sex is clearly
sexist in language. The unequal portrayal can be seen through linguistic features in
terms of morphology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics.
1.2.3. Linguistic Sexism in English
Does linguistic sexism exist in English? The answer is it does definitely. According
to Umera-Okeke (2012), many sociolinguistic studies over the years have shown
that the English language favors the masculine gender rather than the feminine. The
problem with sexism in English goes beyond questions of vocabulary: it is built into

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the way the language is structured, and the very concepts each of us uses to describe
ideas about language. Goddard and Patterson (2001) (cited in Umera-Okeke, 2012)
argues that the English language is a sexist language based on three facts:

adding the suffix groom to the root bride.
Another evidence of sexism in English morphology is that there are many words
which are clearly male-oriented in that they contain the element man while they can
in fact apply to both sexes. Some examples are bushman, milkman, sportsmanship,
draftsman, freshman, cameraman, salesmanship, etc.
On the other hand, when a word has a negative meaning, a female word is a major
component and a masculine suffix is attached to the feminine word. For example, if
the marriage ends in death, the woman is a widow and the suffix er is added to it to
make the word widower. If marriage ends in divorce, the woman gets the title of
divorcee while the man is described with a statement such as He is divorced (Nilsen
et al., 1979, p. 104).
In compound words or expressions, an unnecessary element or gender marker like
woman/ women/ lady/ female/ women’s is often added to a word to mark that
something is for women. Trask (2004) argues that men play golf and cricket, while
women play women’s golf and women’s cricket. A man can be a doctor, but a
woman must often be a woman doctor/ lady doctor. This is a way of highlighting or
spotlighting a person's gender in a demeaning way which may imply that it is
unusual for women to have the position. Some other examples are women’s
football, women’s volleyball, women’s basketball, female president, female prime
minister, woman mayor.
1.2.3.2. Linguistic Sexism in Semantics
In English, there are the same words that possess different meanings when they are
used for women and men and there are sex-pairs of words that contain different
colours of meanings for women and men. Linguistic sexism in semantics is against
both of the two sexes but the terms used for females outnumber those for males.

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In English, a word may have different connotations when it is collocated with a
male term or a female term. When used for women, the same words are likely to
narrow and assume sexual connotations. The following examples of the typical

women who are unmarried and Mrs. is for married women. In English compound
words like call boy and call girl, the former indicates a male waiter hotel or man
who greeting cinema actor to go onto stage to act while the latter means a phone
call prostitute.
Another signal of sexism in semantics is that English excludes females by the use of
generic nouns. It is completely accepted that man and woman are two equal
components of human race but actually not equal in the way they refer to people.
Generic noun man, besides its reference to male human being, can also refer to the
whole race. It is not surprised that man, and men can generically refer to both male
and female but woman and women cannot. For example, the word man in the
sentences like ‘Man needs food to survive’ and ‘Man is the highest form of life on
earth’ refers to the whole human race.
Furthermore, words implying sexism with metaphorical meanings are also worth
mentioning. Metaphorical items are often derogatory to both men and women but it
must be admitted that most of the cases are to trivialize and/or sexualize women.
First, many items naming various kinds of food with the taste of sweet and with
color are used to refer to women: cupcake, peaches, honey, cookie, melons, candy,
tomato, cherry, tart, pudding, pumpkin, buns, etc. while the ones with the taste of
spicy and of rich nutrition are related to men: beefcake, wiener, hot dog, hunk, big
cheese, shrimp, etc. Second, soft and colorful plants like rosebud, sweet pea,
wallflower, clinging vine, shrinking violet, late bloomer, buttercup, etc. are
metaphors for women while strong plants such as pansy, lily-livered, bean-pole,
mighty oak, etc. are for men. Third, animal-related words are frequently employed
to describe people’s appearance as well as characters. Most of them show
stereotyped notions of both women and men. Words like chicks, kitten, pussy,
bunny, old bat, bird, spider, filly, sow, cow, lamb, queen bee, whale, hippo are for
women and the ones like dog, fox, snake, rat, ape, pig, cock, bull, tomcat, shark,
tiger, worm, wolf, ox, gorilla, monkey are for men. Finally, objects which are strong

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