How Gender Shows up in Language

This article discusses how gender manifests in various languages and the influence of gender on language. In English, grammatical gender is limited to certain contexts such as pronouns and gendered vocabulary. Over time, contemporary language has moved away from overtly gendered terms due to factors like feminist language reform and demographic changes. Other major world languages have varying degrees of grammatical gender marking, with some even conjugating verbs based on the speaker's gender. Some languages classify nouns into categories unrelated to gender, such as animate vs inanimate or front/back of mouth sounds. Recently, there has been a push for gender-neutral language reform in Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of recognizing how gender influences language and its potential impact on social perceptions and expectations.