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Real Language Series General Editors: Jennifer Coates, Jenny Cheshire, Euan Reid This is a sociolinguistics series about the relationships between language, society and social change. Books in the series draw on natural language data from a wide range of social contexts. The series takes a critical approach to the subject, challenging current orthodoxies, and dealing with familiar topics in new ways. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gender and Discourse offers a critical new approach to the study of language and gender studies. Women moving into the public domains of power traditionally monopolised by men are creating new identities for themselves, and the language that is used by them and about them offers an insight into gender roles. Clare Walsh reviews the current dominance/difference debates, and proposes a new analytical framework which combines the insights of critical discourse and feminist perspectives on discourse to provide a new perspective on the role of women in public life. A superbly accessible book designed for students and researchers in the field, the book features: - topical case studies from the arenas of politics, religion and activism- a new analytical framework, also summarised in chart form so the reader can apply their own critical analyses of texts. - written and visual text types for the reader's own linguistic and semiotic analysis. 'This important book takes up a neglected question in the study of language and gender - what difference women make to the discourse of historically male-dominated institutions - and brings to bear on it both the insights of feminist scholarship and evidence from women's own testimony. Clare Walsh's analysis of the dilemmas women face is both subtle and incisive, taking us beyond popular 'Mars and Venus' stereotypes and posing some hard questions for fashionable theories of language, identity and performance. Her book should be read, not only by linguists but by anyone with a serious interest in gender and public life'Professor Deborah Cameron, Institute of Education, London Clare Walsh is a Senior Lecturer in English at De Montfort University.
List of contents
1. Aims and General Theoretical Issues2. Towards a Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis3. Women in the House. A Case Study of Women Labour MPs at Westminster4. Devolving Power, Dissolving Gender Inequalities? A Case Study of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition5. Consuming Politics. A Case Study of the Women's Environmental Network6. Speaking in Different Tongues? A Case Study of Women Priests in the Church of England
About the author
Clare Walsh
Summary
Clare Walsh explores the experience of women currently involved in linguistic domains traditionally monopolised by men and considers the impact women have made on the norms in language that govern public sphere discourse (eg in politics, professional occupations and organisations - pressure/lobby groups). Case studies are used throughout.
