Representation of Diversity The Power of Language 1: Gender-neutral language

A Story A boy and his father were involved in a serious car accident. The father was killed instantly; the son was severely injured. An ambulance rushed him to the nearest hospital, and a prominent surgeon was summoned to perform an immediate operation. Upon entering the operating room, however, the surgeon exclaimed “I can´t operate on this boy. He´s my son.”

But the father died in the accident.” Ask yourself: “How can that be? But the father died in the accident.”

Language as a reflection of reality? This story demonstrates to us that language does not reflect reality when it is not properly used. Conversely language strongly influences our view of reality. In our minds we perceive the "Coryphaeus" as being a man. We connect certain ideas and expectations with the gender of a person or closely associate a particular role or behaviour with either the female or male gender. History teaches us that great achievements by women were often not recognised because they occurred during times when women were not required to contribute with any particular exploits (e.g. during the Middle Ages). Women were denied opportunities for intellectual achievements, and the term "deformed males", once coined by Aristotle, continued to stubbornly persist for a long time. Their achievements were often attributed to their husbands or patrons. Only the women's rights movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries triggered an intense debate on women's rights, when the term "history" was expanded to encompass the term "herstory". The intention was to show how women had always been part of history and that they had significantly influenced it, whilst on the other hand to show how history is to be seen from both the male as well as the female perspective. The writing of history by males deals mainly with heroics, wars and their historical consequences. Females history links society with social issues. To make women visible they must also be made linguistically visible!