Gender and discourse analysis

This chapter explores historical and current language and gender scholarship with a particular focus on discourse, that is, on language as a sociocultural practice shaped by and shaping (gender) ideologies and identities. Coates and Picher present an overview of various approaches to the study of gender and discourse, drawing on an extensive range of examples. These include expressions of conversational dominance in contexts as diverse as the talk of heterosexual couples and the interaction of male and female politicians in the UK parliament. Several extracts capture conversational collaboration in everyday talk, most prominently in the talk of women friends, but also in conversations of young Black southeast London men talking about fatherhood. The social constructionist paradigm which has dominated language and gender studies for the past few decades has allowed researchers to consider the plurality and fluidity of gender performances, and, increasingly also their intersections. The significance of gender ideologies and their variation through time and cultural contexts is apparent throughout the chapter, including in examples of resistant ‘powergirl’ femininities adopted by young Turkish women in Germany and in misogynist discourses about ‘leftover women’ in China.