Gender lesson 1

STARTER: Grammar revision: For each of the blanks below, fill in the missing word, then decide which word class it fits into: noun, verb, adjective, adverb or pronoun Next week, as part of our Careers programme, a number of specialist professionals will be ______ the college. An engineer will talk about careers in the mechanical and electrical engineering industries. ____ will meet any interested students in room 12.  A nurse will also be available to discuss career routes into Nursing, and ____ will be in room 20. Meanwhile, Dr Hibbert, from the Cambridge Road Medical Practice, will speak to potential medical _______ in room 14, where ____ will also show a video entitled ‘Careers in Medicine’

A father and son were involved in a car accident and both were taken to hospital. The father died immediately on arrival, but the son survived, so he was taken to the

operating theatre for an emergency operation. The surgeon said: "I can't

operate on this boy because he's my son".

How can you explain this fact?

Language and Gender

Paper Two: Language Varieties

What we will do in this unit:• Consider a brief history of gender inequality• Consider how language encompasses

gender inequality• Learn the theories of some linguists and

both apply and criticise them with regards to texts

• Conduct your own mini investigation• Write up your ideas into articles • Analyse data tables

Choice of two questionsSpend 40 minutes on it.

A brief history of gender inequality…

• True or false?

A brief history of gender inequality…

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wfrgf

And now?

Sex and gender• What’s the difference?

• Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics, while gender refers to behaviours, roles, expectations, and activities in society. Sex refers to male or female, while gender refers to masculine or feminine. The differences in the sexes do not vary throughout the world, but differences in gender do.

Sex = chromsomes and reproductive organs. Do not vary across cultures and time

(Language can be affected by this – average male and female voice pitch)

Gender = social roles and identities – far more variable

(This is what linguists are most interested in. )

Sex and gender• What if these don’t match?

Last year ‘transgender’ increased in usage by 100% (being the second most increased-usage word of 2015).

“…following the increased exposure of transgender public figures such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, and the presence of trans actors and characters in programmes including Orange Is the New Black, Boy Meets Girland, soon, EastEnders. Words such as “cisgender”, “misgender” and “Mx” have also been added to Collinsdictionary.com.”

… showing that the issue of gender, and transgender is increasing in importance amongst our contemporary society.

Sex and gender• Key learning points from today?

• What was your learning objective?

• Homework…