“Watch your thoughts, for they become your words.
Watch you words, for they become your deeds.
Watch your deeds, for they become your habits.
Watch your habits for they become your character.
Watch your character for it will become your destiny.”
Expression pertains to communication. The words and phrases we choose and deploy as we interact with one another. How do we express ourselves and how does this impact gender equality?
Every social movement is driven by language and absolute gender equality will need a little help from linguistics; and indeed all of us. Doing the right thing takes effort and change.
“Human beings do not live in the objective world alone...but very much at the mercy of a particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. The fact of the matter is that the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. ”
“A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly, and the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and exclaims, “I can’t operate on this boy.” “Why not?” the nurse asks. “Because he’s my son,” the doctor responds.
How is this possible?”
Apologies for employing this well known riddle to illustrate how language is linked to gender equality. However the riddle is well known for a reason.
Even the shortest of pauses in answering the riddle betrays the existence of bias in our thoughts.