Language and gender models

Deficit model

Claims women's language lacks authority reflects their subordinate social position

Lakoff: features of women's language such as hedges super polite forms

Dominance model

Claims men use language to dominate women reinforcing power asymmetries in society

Fishman: conversational shitwtok women make effort to sustain conversations

Difference model

Claims men and women speak different genderlects leading to miscommunication

Tannen: status vs support / independence vs intimacy / advice vs understanding / info vs feelings / orders vs proposals / conflict vs compromise / report vs rapport

Diversity model

Claims gender is constructed through language rather than being a fixed trait that determines how we speak

Cameron: critiqued mars vs venus argued linguistic differences driven by identity construction rather than biology or fixed socialisation