THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE CREATION OF FEMINIST MOVEMENTS

ABSTRACT

This research is an investigation of “The Role of Language in the creation of Feminist Movement. The research work stemmed from the researcher trying to ascertain if women feel marginalized by certain linguistic practices and if the feminist movement has been able to help reduce those linguistic bias towards women. The framework used for this research is Henri Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory and a research questionnaire titled “The Role of Language in the creation of feminist movement” was used. All respondents of this questionnaire were women of varying age, educational background and occupation, the researcher found out that a very large percentage of women agreed that language has been used to marginalize women in their society and they agreed empowering language and fighting this biases has helped to unite women under the feminist banner. This study proved that language is very instrumental in the creation of social groups and identities such as Feminist movements and this movement has indeed helped to foster more respectful language for women. This work is a valuable contribution to the field of feminist linguistics which continues to be a growing field, the researcher recommends that people should continue to use respectful language for women and more research should continue in the field of Feminist linguistics to inform people on how language can be used to challenge gendered norms and stereotypes, introduce new terminologies, empower individuals, raise awareness about women’s experiences and mobilize feminist activism.