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Are Gender-Neutral Pronouns Really Neutral? Testing a Male Bias in the Grammatical Genderless Languages Turkish and Finnish

Renström, Emma LU ; Lindqvist, Anna LU ; Akbas, Gulcin ; Hekanaho, Laura and Gustafsson Sendén, Marie (2023) In Journal of Language and Social Psychology 42(4). p.476-487
Abstract
Languages differ in how grammatically salient gender is. We explored if grammatically gender-neutral pronouns in Finnish and Turkish, two grammatically genderless languages, are gender neutral or male biased, thereby activating male, rather than female, exemplars. We also tested whether differences in national level gender equality influence the male bias. Results indicated a male bias in both languages, whereas national level gender equality had no influence. Implications for gender-fair language reforms in grammatically genderless languages are discussed.
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Language and Social Psychology
volume
42
issue
4
pages
476 - 487
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:85144258143
ISSN
0261-927X
DOI
10.1177/0261927X221146229
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9407da1d-bb00-45d5-8939-c677efb41ac9
date added to LUP
2022-12-20 09:31:54
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:39:22
@article{9407da1d-bb00-45d5-8939-c677efb41ac9,
  abstract     = {{Languages differ in how grammatically salient gender is. We explored if grammatically gender-neutral pronouns in Finnish and Turkish, two grammatically genderless languages, are gender neutral or male biased, thereby activating male, rather than female, exemplars. We also tested whether differences in national level gender equality influence the male bias. Results indicated a male bias in both languages, whereas national level gender equality had no influence. Implications for gender-fair language reforms in grammatically genderless languages are discussed.}},
  author       = {{Renström, Emma and Lindqvist, Anna and Akbas, Gulcin and Hekanaho, Laura and Gustafsson Sendén, Marie}},
  issn         = {{0261-927X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{476--487}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Journal of Language and Social Psychology}},
  title        = {{Are Gender-Neutral Pronouns Really Neutral? Testing a Male Bias in the Grammatical Genderless Languages Turkish and Finnish}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261927X221146229}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0261927X221146229}},
  volume       = {{42}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}