Gender and Discourse

The contributors to this collection offer an essential introduction to the ways in which feminist linguistics and critical discourse analysts have contributed to our understanding of gender and sex. By examining how these perspectives have been applied to these concepts, the contributors provide both a review of the literature, as well as an opportunity to follow the most recent debates in this area. Through an analysis of a range of real data, they also demonstrate the relevance of these theoretical and methodological insights for gender research in particular and social practice in general. A purely theoretical first part discusses the most relevant issues about power, racism, and the gender-sex debate, while the second part focuses on gendered discourse in both the public and private domains; the workplace, as well as the family. The third and final part provides the reader with a number of studies from a more ethnographic point of view where the impact of culture on the discursive construction of gender is illustrated. This fascinating volume succeeds in bringing together European, American, and Australian traditions of research and will be essential reading for all students of linguistics, gender, and psychology.