The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Introduction 23

SIDEBAR 1.3:A Note on Language in Other Cultures

When studying Spanish, I always wondered if there were effects of having masculine and feminine

pronouns for objects. The word “the” takes one of two forms in Spanish depending on whether the

object is masculine (el) or feminine (la). Many other languages employ masculine and feminine ar-

ticles. Although I did not really visualize a book as male (el libro) or a window as female (la ventana),

it seemed that the use of these terms must

have implications for gender. In 2009, a

study supported my hunch (Wasserman &

Weseley, 2009). Native English speakers tak-

ing advanced Spanish classes in high school

completed a survey of sexist attitudes after

being randomly assigned to read aHarry

Potterpassage in either English or Spanish.

Amazingly, those reading the Spanish pas-

sage scored higher on the sexism scale than

those reading the English passage—with

the difference being especially pronounced

among women (see Figure 1.7).

The study was replicated with

French. Similar but somewhat weaker ef-

fects were found with bilingual students.

Wasserman and Weseley (2009) sug-

gested that grammatical gender increases

one’s awareness and attention to differ-

ences between women and men.

FIGURE 1.7 College men and women scored

higher on a sexism scale after reading a passage in

Spanish than in English but the difference was only

significant for women.

Source:Adapted from Wasserman & Weseley (2009).

English

Sexism Score

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Men Women

Spanish English Spanish

One way that sexist language was ad-

dressed in the 1970s was with the introduc-

tion of the termMs. Ms was supposed to

reduce the problem of distinguishing women

by their marital status. However,Msconjures

up images of unique groups of women (e.g.,

divorced or feminist). When college students

were randomly assigned to read a descrip-

tion of a 25-year-old full-time employee who

was addressed as Ms, Miss, Mrs., or Mr., Ms

led to the perception of the most masculine/

agentic traits (see Figure 1.8; Malcolmson &

Sinclair, 2007).

Is there any reason to believe the cli-

mate is changing, that nonsexist language is

FIGURE 1.8 College students perceived employ-

ees addressed as “Ms.” to be more agentic and less

communal than those addressed as “Mrs.,” or “Mr.”

Source:Adapted from Malcolmson & Sinclair (2007).

Ms.

0

0.5

1

1.5

Level of Trait

2

2.5

3

3.5

Miss Mrs. Mr.

Agency

Communion

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