Hodel, Lea (2023). Indicators of a Successful Gender-Fair Language Reform — Gender-Fair Language Use in and Its Consequences for Job Recruitment. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern
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Abstract
Gender-fair language has been promoted since the 1970s to confront the androcentric use of masculine forms to refer to people in general (i.e., the masculine generic). The research presented in this dissertation was aimed at evaluating the success of gender-fair language reforms in various languages and speech communities. We conducted three studies, two investigating language use in job advertisements in different countries (Study 1) and speech communities (Study 2), and one investigating evaluations of speakers’ use of gender-fair language in an application letter (Study 3). In Study 1, we analyzed gender-fair language use in two German-speaking countries with egalitarian values (Austria and Switzerland) and two Slavic-speaking countries with hierarchical values (Czech Republic and Poland), as well as in male-dominated, female-dominated, and gender-balanced branches. The results showed that gender-fair language is used more frequently in the two egalitarian countries and in branches with a higher proportion of female employees. These results give novel evidence showing that gender-fair language reforms have been more successful in egalitarian than hierarchical speech communities. In Study 2, we investigated the use of gender-fair language in middle-class professions (egalitarian speech communities) compared to working-class professions (hierarchical speech communities) in the Polish national corpus (Study 2a) and in Swiss job advertisements (Study 2b). The results for both countries showed that gender-fair language is used in more middle- than working-class professions. Hence, this study provides additional evidence for the more successful language reforms in egalitarian than hierarchical speech communities. In Study 3, a hiring simulation study, we analyzed how Swiss-German participants evaluated women applying for a job who presented themselves with either feminine or masculine job titles. The results showed that women are evaluated as more (linguistically) competent and more hirable when presenting themselves with a feminine rather than masculine job title and that linguistic competence and general competence fully mediate the effect of the job title on hireability. Overall, the results presented here suggest that gender-fair language reforms have been successful in egalitarian speech communities, while resistance thereto is greater in more hierarchical speech communities.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Dissertation Type: | Cumulative |
| Date of Defense: | 8 November 2023 |
| Subjects: | 100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
| Institute / Center: | 07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Stalder |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Oct 2025 10:09 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2025 22:25 |
| URI: | https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/6823 |
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