Rethinking Language
& Gender Research
Theory & Practice

Edited by Victoria Bergvall, et al.
Nov 1996
Pearson Education / Longman
ISBN: 0582265738
320 pages
$59.50 Paper original

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Rethinking Language and Gender Research is the first book focusing on language and gender to explicitly challenge the dichotomy of female and male use of language. It represents a turning point in language and gender studies, addressing the political and social consequences of popular beliefs about women's language and men's language and proposing new ways of looking at language and gender. The essays take a fresh approach to the study of subjects such as language and sex and the use of language to produce and maintain power and prestige.

Topics explored in this text include sex and the brain; the language of a rape hearing; teenage language; radio talk show exchanges; discourse strategies of African American women; political implications for language and gender studies; the relationship between sex and gender and the construction of identity through language.

A useful introductory chapter sets the articles in context, explaining the relationships that exist between them, and full cross-referencing between articles and an extensive index allow for easy access to information. The interdisciplinary approach of the text, the wide-range of methodologies presented, and the comprehensive review of the current literature will make this book invaluable reading for all upper-level undergraduate students, postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of linguistics, sociolinguistics, gender and cultural studies.

Contents
Contributors, Editor's Preface; Acknowledgements
1. The question of questions: beyond binary thinking, Janet M. Bing and Victoria L. Bergvall
2. The language-gender interface: challenging co-optation, Deborah Cameron
3. Language and gender research in an experimental setting, Alice F. Freed
4. Floor management and power strategies in adolescent conversation, Alice Greenwood
5. Women, men and prestige speech forms: a critical review, Deborah James
6. Storytellers and gatekeepers in economics, Livia Polanyi and Diana Strassmann
7. Consensual sex or sexual harassment: negotiating meaning, Susan Ehrilch and Ruth King
8. Constructing and enacting gender through discourse: negotiating multiple roles as female engineering students, Victoria L. Bergvall
9. Dealing with gender identity as a sociolinguistic variable, Miriam Meyerhoff
10. Shifting gender positions among Hindi-speaking hijras, Kira Hall and Veronica O'Donovan
11. Black feminist theory and African American women's linguistic practice, Mary Bucholtz
Index

Review
"…contains several excellent, well-balanced and penetrating discussions."
Journal of Sociolinguistics

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