The differences in men and women’s biographies descriptions (Sự khác biệt trong miêu tả tiểu sử người nam và nữ)
Thạc sĩ Nguyễn Thị Lập: Trung tâm Bồi dưỡng – Ngoại ngữ
1. Introdution
Language has been long considered as a means of communication. We use language to communicate with one another, to exchange information, and to construct the actual world around us. Language is also said to be a social phenomenon. It reflects social background, religion, and also speaker’s gender. For example, when we communicate with someone, we are easily found their social position or which groups they are belong to and either they are males or females.
Thus, the aim of this paper is to find out the differences of the language used between men and women’s biographies descriptions.
2. Theoretical background
Why might these differences exist while men and women grow up in the same families, go to school together, work in similar environments, and socialize together?
2.1 Dominance
One explanation served for these variations is dominance theory of Fishman (1980) and DeFrancisco (1991) that naturally states that men have more power than women physically, financially, and in working place especially in business, where women often report that they have difficulty in gaining the floor. The dominance also sees language as benefiting males and maintaining females as inferior.
2.2 Difference
Another explanation is difference which assumes that language is different according to gender. This is because they are segregated at important stages of their lives. Women, according to Deborah Tannen’s work (1990, 1991) mentions, desire from their relationships
collaboration, intimacy, equality, understanding, support and approval. Men, on the other hand, allegedly place a greater premium on status and dependence, and are less concerned about overt disagreement and inequality in their relationship.
2.3 Report and rapport
Males are said to engage to report talk, where language is used to convey information. It’s what you say and how much. Men are also more interested in the content of their talk than women. Differently, rapport is said to engage to females, where language is used to negotiate, build, maintain relationship. It’s not so much what you say, it is how you say it.
3. Methodology
The primary sources are the biographies taken from the New Zealand Government web pages. The two first are about two Ministers, one man and one woman, write a short biography of themselves to be put on the Government web. The other two write about New Zealand political leaders, also one male and one female.
Firstly, the data is collected, and then the study is carried out in the relation to theoretical background. Finally, the detailed analysis will be done by analyzing examples cited in the biographies.
Having a detailed look at the biographies, it is evident to say that men and women are introduced differently. For women language serves to help build relationships with a large number of information relating to family background. For men, language serves to convey information referring to careers, achievements, and position them as importance.
4. Data analysis
4.1 Naming
When Hon Ruth Dyson and Hon Damien O’Connor introduce their names, Ruth uses only full name- Rut h Dyson, Damien uses title and Mr. O'Connor- West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O’Connor. This implies that they are establishing a certain social distance and claiming a different social status. Moreover, in English Mr is used for men, for women, Mrs/ Miss/ Ms are used in order to show their marital status. Wilhelmina Sherriff Bain is introduced with only full name, while Robert David Muldoon is respectably named with Sir Robert David Muldoon. These are very explicit examples of sexist language -the one that men and women are presented unequally against women basically.
4.2 Family background
Family background is the focus of Ruth Dyson when talking about herself. She writes about herself with plentiful information relates to family for instances: she was raised...her father retired from....., the family moved to......, She is married to Martin Ward, she has two step – children and grand-daughter.....
Wilhelmina Sherriff Bain is the same case. She is introduced with massive data about her family: the daughter of Elizabeth Middlemass and her husband, John Bain, a spirit merchant..... with her parents, four sisters and one brother...... Another brother, James Walker Bain, preceded the family to New Zealand. Meanwhile, very little about family is referred when Damien O’Connor talks about his family, only one sentence: he is married and has four daughters. Especially, there is no word relating to family when taking about Sir Robert David Muldoon. All these contribute that women are introduced with a lot of information relating to regional background and family, but men are not. Women are put in
the context of traditional gender role, for example since we are children in our house with our parents. Normally, the father is the one that is seen from children like the one who has more authority than the mother. Thus, the mother is the one who is in charge about all the stuffs in the house, in the school for their children. And if the children have some problem at school with the teacher, the mother is usually the one that will go to school and negotiate, or discuss with the teacher. Thus, for women, the language serves to build relationship and collaboration.
4.3 Career, achievement involvements, and others.
When Damien O’connor describes himself, a number of career involvement and plenty of information related to high-status, achievement and promotion are respectably presented, for example: he worked in a variety of jobs in farming and tourism..., a machinery operator........, past president of....., West Coast Young Farmer of the year....., and became MP for......, Labor spokesperson, currently member of..., Minister of.....
This is much more explicit in case of Sir Robert David Muldoon. He is introduced with variety of information referring to career and promotion for instance: ... political leader, prime minister...., he entered parliament ... as a member of the conservative National party and served .... as finance minister. He was briefly deputy prime minister and ... was leader of the opposition. Muldoon led his party to victory in the 1975 elections and served in the dual positions of prime minister and finance,..... led by leader David Lange . Muldoon was knighted ..... resigned ...There is nothing relating to his family background or marital status at all.
All these suggest that careers and achievements play very important role for men. They are considered to be the “bread winner” in the family and society. On the contrary, women are regarded as “home maker” and less socially powerful than men.
The difference in biographies description can be seen in taking about hobbies as well. Ruth Dyson’s interests are gardening, tramping, reading, music, kayaking...this seems to be very womanly, but Damien consists of adventurous and energetic ones such as skiing, whitewater rafting, jet boating, motor sports, rugby....This indicates men tend to have more physical power or stronger sex. This is also what the dominance expresses when taking about language and gender: men have more power than women physically, financially, and in working place as well as promotion, where women often report that they have difficulty in gaining the floor. The dominance also sees language as benefiting males and maintaining females as inferior.
5. Conclusion
In short, a lot of differences revealed through analyzing the biographies. Women are introduced with full name or husband’s first name while men are respectably presented with title and Mr or Sir. Regional and family background are the focus of women description, but
for men, information includes careers, high-status positions, and achievements. Women’s hobbies are very womanly, whereas men’s are adventurous and energetic. These differences contribute to a conclusion that for women language serves to help build relationships collaboration for men, language serves to conveys information and position them as importance.
References
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DeFrancisco, Victoria.1991. ‘ The sound of women silence:
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Fishman, Pamela. 1980. ‘ Conversational insecurity’, in Howard Giles, Peter W. Robinson, and Philip M. Smith(eds) Language: Social Psychological Perspectives, Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Tannen, Deborah . 1991. You just don’t understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Virago: London.
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