Language and Gender (review)

This is an important book in language and gender (L&G) studies, demonstrating how the social construction of gendered identities is accomplished through language use in social practice. The authors explore the extent to which a social-constructionist approach to the analysis of L&G can be consistently maintained without losing sight of the ultimate goal of all research, to identify patterns and draw out generalizations. As pioneers of social constructionism in L&G research, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet (E&M) are well-placed to take on this daunting task. Their complementary areas of expertise extend from dialectology and variationist linguistics to semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. In this book, they take on the mammoth task of (re-)evaluating three decades of L&G research through social-constructionist spectacles. Gender is analyzed not as a simple social variable (as in early sociolinguistic research) but as a complex set of constraints that determine the range of linguistic resources available for exploitation in interaction. That they don’t always succeed in convincingly maintaining this stance is an indication of the near-impossibility of the undertaking, rather than a reflection on their achievement. I elaborate on this point below, but it does not detract from the enormously valuable contribution that this book makes to L&G studies.

The book covers a remarkable range of L&G research (as well as sociolinguistic research more generally). It spans the decades from Lakoff’s germinal hypotheses (1973) to research appearing in current journals; and its geographic range is equally comprehensive, extending from Iceland to New Zealand, and from the global Far East to the American Midwest. All the standard material on L&G research is here, but reconceived within a social-constructionist framework which typically provides a refreshing new twist. The focus is on what people are DOING with language, that is, on linguistic practice as embedded in more general social practice. The discussion digs beneath the surface of such familiar topics as compliments and insults, verbosity and gossip, and provides insightful, novel analyses. So, for example, E&M present a richer and more complex notion of communicative competence, paying attention to the ‘meaning-making rights’ (92) of a speaker, and the impact, up-take, or ‘discursive life’ of their utterances. The fresh examples, thought-provoking metaphors, and detailed case studies will delight readers, and perhaps especially those very familiar with the area. Examples are drawn not just from language, but from the many other resources (clothes, activities, food) that contribute to the construction of social order, cultural difference, and, most fundamentally, ‘the gender order’ (Connell 1987).

A short introduction is followed by nine substantial chapters. Each introduces important concepts in sociolinguistics (e.g. diglossia, codeswitching, social variables), pragmatics (e.g. speech acts, politeness, H. Paul Grice’s maxims), and discourse analysis (e.g. turn-taking, interruption, frame), exemplified from diverse material extending well beyond L&G research. Even the most basic linguistic levels of phonology, morphology, lexis, and grammar are covered, also richly illustrated with thought-provoking examples, which include, but are not limited to, gender issues.

The introduction succinctly outlines the development of L&G research from its origins in the 1970s, locating the distinctive approach taken in this book in relation to earlier theoretical approaches and identifying current research questions, which are consistently addressed throughout the following chapters: for example, ‘what kinds of resources can and do people deploy to present themselves as certain kinds of women and men?’, and ‘what kinds of linguistic practices support particular gender ideologies and norms?’ (5).

Ch. 1 is in my view the most important in the book. The notion of gender as a construction, a performance requiring work, is clearly explicated, and Connell’s concept of ‘the gender order’ as a system of allocation is introduced. This provides the basis for E&M’s sustained examination of the institutional and ideological dimensions of gender arrangements throughout the book. They illustrate how gender is regularly ‘naturalized’ and cover basic...