Sexist Language in Published Research Articles: Basis for a Gender-Fair Training Program

Sexist Language in Published Research Articles: Basis for a Gender-Fair Training Program
John Allen D. Cariaga
Mariano Marcos State University, Batac City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
ISSN: 2961-3035 I Volume 3 I Issue 1 I May 2023
Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the recurring sexist language in the research articles published in the multidisciplinary peer-reviewed e-journals of Philippine HEIs in Region 1. It also identified the most gender sensitive academic discipline and proposed a gender-fair training program. The study was framed from the Feminist Stylistics of Mills (1995) using the classification on generic nouns, generic pronouns and occupational nouns. There were five (5) e-journals and a total of 110 research articles considered in the study. A descriptive qualitative research design through content analysis was used to determine the occurrence of sexist language. In the case of the emerging sexist forms, women as the marked form under the Lexical analysis of Feminist Stylistics by Mills was used depicting the syntagmatic pairing of male and female words and the use of other affixes. The researcher employed a coding scheme to address the research problems of the study. The research articles were scanned and collected 22 terms which were considered sexist; nine (9) terms on generic nouns, six (6) on generic pronouns, and seven (7) terms on occupational nouns. Meanwhile, Agricultural Sciences was identified as the most gender-sensitive academic discipline. The study recommended the need to conduct seminars in coordination with concerned academic organizations, to carefully review the research articles being published in the e-journals, and the inclusion of wider sources of data to be able to create a glossary of these containing its non-sexist terms. Also, future researchers may be interested in the sensitivity and social acceptability of individuals to sexist language and identifying the causes why sexist language is mostly in favor of men.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56901/TGLT4342
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