Dr. Lesley Shannon’s Article on Gendered Language Published in CRA
WRITTEN BY: JENNA ANDERSON
Dr. Lesley Shannon鈥檚 article titled 鈥淲ant to Encourage Gender Diversity? Choose Your Words WISEly鈥� has been published in the 鈥檚 (CRA)
The article discuses the low percentage of women enrolled in undergraduate computer science degrees (only 15%) and how word choice in program recruitment webpages may be acting as a deterrent to women applicants. Language can explicitly be gendered through the use of gendered pronouns, for example the use of 鈥榟e鈥� to refer to everyone; which has been found to ostracize women. However, there are also words in the English language that may be more subtly tied to a gender, and using them can signal to your audience who the in-groups and out-groups are. Communal language (i.e. considerate, polite, responsible) is seen as being feminine whereas agentic language (i.e. ambitious, analytical, logical) is seen as being masculine. Studies have shown that when more communal language is used, women report feeling more included and there is no negative effect on men鈥檚 feeling of inclusion. Dr. Shannon therefore suggests changing the way program recruitments are written by using more communal language in the form of explaining 鈥榳hy鈥� a degree is important, rather than the agentic method of explaining 鈥榳hat鈥� a degree will do or create.
To read, 鈥淲ant to Encourage Gender Diversity? Choose Your Words WISEly鈥� by Dr. Lesley Shannon,
The is a non-profit association that aims to unite industry, academia and governance to advance computing research to better the world. The CRA hopes to further the field of computing by empowering research in computing and providing programs and mentorship so that computing professionals can grow to their full potential. Computing Research News is the CRA鈥檚 online publication used to inform computing researchers about the latest research and what is happening in the computing community.
Fun WWEST fact: Maria Klawe, the first chairholder of the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering Program (BC/Yukon) was one of the founders of CRA-W (Computing Research Association Women) and the first woman to be elected to the board of CRA.
For more information on gendered language, check out WWEST鈥檚 on gender diversity.