Boda 1

Boda Krisztina

Mózes Dorottya

Language and Gender

2018. 04. 23.

An Effective Way to Introduce Gender in Class

When I decided to be a teacher five years ago, I knew very little about gender roles. I
had never thought about the consequences of the language use, and how it affects different
human beings. Since I have always identified myself as a woman, I had not seen the
difficulties that some people need to go though when they need to identify themselves with a
pronoun for example. Fortunately, at the university I had some classes where I came to the
realization that talking about gender is not just an option, it is a necessity, and we need to grab
every opportunity to do that. School is one of the best platforms to start. When we teach, we
subconsciously and inevitably teach gender as well. In this paper, I would like to approach
two elements of an English language class that can cause problems from the feminist or
gender perspective: the teaching of pronouns and vocabulary.
Hungarians are in a better position when it comes to pronouns, more precisely gender
neutral pronouns, since we only have one pronoun for the third person singular. But as an
English language teacher, I need to face the problem of teaching and using English pronouns
very often, and perhaps in a very early stage of learning. Language can adapt quite easily to
different social changes. Nowadays, for example, some languages, where there is a different
pronoun for a male and a female introduced a gender neutral pronoun. In English, it is ‘they’
most commonly. It has not only practical advantages (you do not need to write that much), but
also social, because in this way, different people with diverse identities will not be excluded.
What was interesting for me is that as early as the 1850s, there was a vast array of
alternatives, none of which have taken off, including ‘xe,’ ‘ze,’ ‘phe,’ ‘er,’ ‘ou’ (Brooks).
Since the liberal conceptions that are becoming more and more popular around the
world just circulated into Hungary, I wonder how I, as an English teacher should behave when
teaching pronouns. Probably the best way to avoid any kind of collision between the teacher
and the students is that we introduce all personal pronouns, but we use only the most neutral
form, they in a singular form. Still, I have some doubts about this method too. What if
someone wants to be identified as 100% male or female, and he or she will not like to be
 Boda 2

called ‘they’? In spite of this problem, I do not think that pronoun usage will cause many
difficulties in a Hungarian class. Unfortunately, Hungarians are still rather conventional about
gender roles, and they do not think outside of the box. That is why I think teachers have a
high responsibility: we are the ones that can show them that even these little things, for
example the pronoun usage can affect someone’s identity. I think we must teach them how to
be empathic towards people. Even so they are in the age when their identity is starting to
form. If we teach empathy, maybe we can avoid some common school problems, like
bullying, or at least we can lower them. Talking about gender-neutral pronouns is a great way
to start.
The other inevitable issue in a language class is teaching words, building vocabulary.
However, if you think about the source of information of different words, teachers tend to rely
on dictionaries. I had never thought about the problem of already existing dictionaries until
we talked about the problem in class. Namely, that all of them are written from males’
perspective. Therefore, women created a so called feminist dictionary which is a
counterexample of the traditional dictionaries. It has all the entries like its traditional pair, but
from only women’s perspective. So, simple word-meanings of ‘diet’ or ‘listen’ for example
are given differently than in a classical dictionary. “Since all major dictionaries rely heavily
on past scholarship, the traces of earlier male bias are still highly visible; and some forms of
bias have persisted into the present” (Cameron). Then the question arises: how much should I
emphasize that the word-meaning are mainly from males’ perspective, and they do not
consider the female perspective? If I wanted to teach the word diet, should I rely on the
Oxford Dictionary, or the feminist dictionary? In the Oxford Dictionary we find the meaning
of the verb diet like this: “Restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order
to lose weight” (Oxford Dictionary). It does not mention that it is usually women who diet in
order to look slimmer and more feminine. It is also usually done to impress men, to be
desirable for them. You would never find this kind of meaning of diet in a traditional
dictionary. That is why I think that when it is possible, teachers should always emphasize the
different viewpoints when teaching words.
When teaching words or pronouns, the teacher has a wonderful opportunity to raise the
awareness of the problems in today’s society. Problems like women are still oppressed by
men even today and even in developed countries, like Hungary for example. When I am going
to be a teacher, I am sure that whenever it is possible, I will devote some time to talk about
current issues and problems in the society, for example the ones I mentioned in this paper, but
not just this. I think talking openly about everything is the key to understand each other. I
 Boda 3

would like to be the teacher, who students can turn to whenever they have a problem. Talking
about feminism, LGBTQ+ communities, but even about politics in class can teach students
that it is important to know about these issues. It is not a problem that we have different
opinions. It is a problem when we cannot share them and cannot argue intelligently with each
other.
 Boda 4

Works Cited

Debbie Cameron. “ A Feminist Dictionary.” Language: a Feminist Guide, 30 June 2015,

debuk.wordpress.com/. (Accessed on 23/04/2018).
“Diet” Oxford Dictionary. 9th edition. 2015.
Raillan Brooks. “‘He,’ ‘She,’ ‘They’ and Us.” The New York Times, 5 Apr. 2017,
www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/insider/reporting-limits-of-language-transgender-
genderneutral-pronouns.html. (Accessed on 23/04/2018).