Balancing Gender Rote in Language: A Political Agenda

Tri Rina Budiwati

* Introduction
Gender movement has come to the point in which a number of
efforts, actions, studies and other forms of agenda have been
conducted to haian gender ro4e in various fields. Each of agenda
has its own characteristics, results and contributions which bring
change, great or little, to the 'a little bit balanced* work! To reach
balanced or more balanced one, larger number of agenda must be
carried out continuously, un- excepdonally in politics and language
Dealing with that, this paper will present a study on language
relating to women and men power in which the result will bring
some agenda suggested take part in balancing gender role ir
language.
The relationships between language, power and gender are
evident- Language brings many ideas, ideology and others, it is not
bom from a vacuum. Relating to this, Habermas (via Haryanto) says
Language is a medium of domination and power".
In this case, language can be used to dominate other people and
legitimate the power. Or, in other words, language has great
contribution to achieve power Then, power and gender can be
represented through language. It is also obviously known that
gender differences bring the consequence of different terms and
language use between men and women (Budiwati, 2003: 1). In daily
life, a number of evidences of language use represent that men have
more powerful role than women. For example, the generic use of
the pronoun he/his* is commonly used in English to refer to people
in general (women and men). It can be seen in the following
sentence:
Everyone must be responsible for
his own deeds (Dardjowidjojo,
1995:269)
* Everyone must be responsible for her own deeds.
In the sentence above, it is dearly seen that possessive pronoun Tiis is
used to refer to both of men and women ('everyone'); whereas possessive
pronoun 'her' cannot be used to refer to 'everyone'. In this case, the sign (*)
means unacceptable form in English grammar and rules. Such phenomena
also occur in Indonesian in the case of
 Women Studies Center, Ahmad Oahlan University, Ybgyakarta.

Gender dalam Perspebtif Bahasa. Seni, dan Sastra 415

morphenrc/suffix '-wan' as in the sentence 'Kebanyakan fema ^ sosiai
hanya vofcalis' Oawa Aw, October 17*. 200(9. In Indonesian. mrwpK~~.
*-wan* (derived from Sanskrit) means men. but in wocd and seramac
contest. It is axnnocriy used to refer to both men and women. It is different
from -wad which means
women and only refers to women
As one of critical language awareness, this stndjr aim* at critically
analyzing the mens powerful role represented in the structure of (especially
and
Indonesian) and describing alternative ways to habnr gww rrJ m as one
f political agenda from women movement. To do so. WinKngm<rif study
and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) will be employed in rhi< study.
SocielsagEi isrirs is commonly used to understand the relationship between
language and society in which gender is constructed simultaneously, whereas
CDA wifi be uriKti^ to analyze critically the social practice of language
which brings consequence on the powerful and powerless.

Theoretical Framework
1. Language and Gender as ooe of Sodofingtastic Study
Sociolinguistics. Gumperz says, is a study which attempts to find the
correlation between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe
any change (in Wardhaugh. 1986: II). Dealing with this, sex/gender is
employed as one of secondary and independent variables in Sociolinguistics.
Moreover, Wardhaugh says that "Men and women use languages to achieve
certain purposes and so long as sexual difference is equated with differences
in access to power and influence in society, we may expect such difference
to result in linguistic differences. For both men and women, power and
influence are also associated with education, social class, regional, origin,
and so on, and there is no question in these cases that there are related
linguistic differences" (1986: 310). Therefore, it is obvious that die
relationship between language and gender are included into Sociolinguistics.
The dose relationship between language and gender bring concept of
sexism and sexist language. Gradoll and Swann say that sexism is any kinds
of discrimination toward women or men due to their sexes, and conducted
with irrelevant reasons (2003: 150). Meanwhile, sexist language is "any
language that expresses such stereotypes attitudes and expectations, or that
assumes the inherent superiority of one sex over the other" (Miller and Swift
in Goshgarian, 1986:195).
2. Language, Power and Gender
One of definitions of power is "the ability to control others; or authority or
influence (Webster's New World College Dictionary, 1996: 1058). Here,
the term power' as one of political strengths is chosen to be connected with
language. As stated before by Habermas that language is a means to dominate
and legitimate power. Connecting to gender, it can be said that language is
employed to legitimate gender (men or women) power. In this case, the use of
language in various affairs is used
by certain sex/gender to dominate other; practically language
represents men's power more than women's. Practice of domination
from men toward women represented in language brings the
consequence of power relation between men and women. In short,
 language, power and gender are inseparable in terms of theory and
practice.
In addition to that, Reid and Hung (1999: par. 6-9) discuss the
relationships of language to power under four headings: language
reflects power, language creates power, language depolitidzes power and
language routinizes power. The first concept (language reflects power) can
be seen when the prestige of a language rises or falls with the power
of its users. At the micro level of social interactions, a speaker's
power or powerlessness is reflected in the content or style of
language, and the style of language reflects upon group membership.
For example, based on stylistic differences in the delivery of a
persuasive message, a speaker's language may be defined as powerful
or powerless. Powerless language is typically defined as the frequent
use of hedges (sort of, maybe), intensifiers (so), tag questions (that
was nice, isn't it), and hesitations, whereas powerful language is
defined as the absence of these forms. Some researches depict that
women prefer these forms. From the second concept (language creates
power), it can be understood that control over the direction and
outcome of conversation is determined by the ability to win
conversational turns, and the ability to gain turns is acts of power.
The focus here is on the ability of a speaker to become powerful,
rather than a description of what constitutes low - or high-power
conversational styles. From the third concept (language depoBticizes
power), it can be understood that attempts at gaining influence and
power are often covered up and/or justified through the strategic use
of social categorizations, or stereotypes. The linguistic
depoliticization of control is an area of study that represents an
analysis of the more subtle aspects of power. A subtle aspect of
power which is hidden is depoliticized by using a number of
linguistic techniques. These techniques may be categorized into
language that misleads people, and language that masks control.
Dealing with gender, mens power may be represented through
language terms which may be stereotyped women as powerless. In
the case of the fourth concept (language routinizes power), the political
or social dominance of one country or one group over another is
often accompanied by linguistic dominance. One example is
linguistic sexism in which language is man-made and biased in favor
of males.
3. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
Discourse analysis can be seen as reaction towards linguistic forms
which are more traditional (formal/structural linguistics) (Mills,
1997: 135). The research more refers to the view of critical discourse
analysis. Discourse analysis in the paradigm emphasizes on power
constellation occurred in the process of meaning production and
reproduction. An individual is not considered as a neutral subject
who can interpret ate freely based on his/her mind, because he/she is
related and influenced by social power in society. Language, here, is
not understood as neutral medium in the speaker's self. Language, in
critical view, is understood as representation which has role in
forming a certain subject, certain discourse themes, or strategies in
die themes. Thus, discourse analysis is used to dig up the power in
every language process: what criteria to be defined as discourse, the
perspective used, and the topic discussed. There are some important
characteristic in critical discourse analysis, namely action, context,
history, power, ideology and representation.
According to Van Dijfc, Fairdough and Wodak (via Eriyanto:
2001: 6-14) discourse is understood as an action. In this case,
discourse is considered as something which has goals, whether to
influence, to debate, to persuade, to object or etc, and discourse is
understood as something expressed consciously, controlled, not
something out of control or expressed unconsciously. One of ways to
understand text is by placing the text in certain historical context.
Then, critical discourse analysis considers context of discourse, such
as background, situation, event and condition. Here, discourse is
considered, understood and analyzed in a certain context. Critical
discourse analysis also considers power element in its analysis. The
concept of power is one of keys between discourse and society.
Ideology is also central concept in critical discourse analysis because
texts, dialogues, and the others are the forms of ideology practices or
the reflection of certain ideology. As stated by Fairdough and Wodak
(Ibid: 7) discourse practice can produce ideological effect: it can
produce and reproduce the unequal power relation among social
classes, for example between men and women, majority and
minority through the differences represented the sodal position.
Critical discourse analysis sees language as an essential factor, which
is, how language is used to see unbalance occurs in society. In this
case, meaning reproduction (representation) is understood through
language, code and pictures.
In addition to that. Fairdough (1989: 233-237) proposes Critical
Language Awareness, based on Critical Language Study (CLS)
which might contribute to die emancipation of those who are
dominated and oppressed in society. In this case, Fairdough focuses
on language education in the schools. This may help increase
consciousness of how language contributes to the domination of
some people by others, because consciousness is the first step
towards emandpattern. Mainly, the concept of CLS recommends
language teachers to understand how language works and have
professional discussions, then to make students cons- dous of how
language is used in a range of contexts. This model provides two
main guiding prindples: 1) Marrying awareness and practice:
developing childrens potential language capabilities depends on a
marriage of purposeful discourse practice and critical language
awareness; 2) Building on experience: critical language awareness
should be built upon the existing language capabilities and
experience of children (flai 240).
 Analysis
Having observed the language use phenomena in various texts and daily
contexts, it can be inferred that men s powerful role are quite evident in
the structure of English and Indonesian. The study is focused on the
terms referring to mens and women's
activities, pconuns, states and any kinds of affairs. From the terms,
men's powerful and women's powerless rede can be clearly seen in
English and Indonesian. Thus, the analysis will discuss the
manifestation of men's powerful role in English and Indonesian, and
some alternative agenda to balance gender role in both languages
which can be conducted by women movement
Manifestation of Mens Powerful Role in English and Indonesian
This part will explore how mens powerful role really manifests in
terms of English and Indonesian. The following are the
manifestations which have been selected from various linguistic
evidences.
1_ The Generic Use of 'Man' and 'He* in English
The English noun man is often presented as generic or the norm
or male- oriented experience, when talking humanity as a whole.
For example, in the terms mankind* and 'man as presented in
the following sentences:
1. All mankind are mortal.
2. There is in all men, both male and female, a desire and power
of generation more active than is ever universally exerted (in
Gradoii. 161). The use of noun 'mankind' and man to refer to
male and female or humanity as a whole illustrates that man is
regarded as superior and plays major role. It is unnecessary to
mention the term woman, since the term man* is enough
and has covered up woman. The widely spread use of 'man'
has been approved grammatically in English that the following
sentence is peculiar semantically.
3. Man is a mammal which breastfeeds his young (in Mills,
1996: 89). The evidence above shows that masculine generics
are male-centered and do not function genetically, since the
subject talked about actually refers to a woman who naturally
breastfeeds her young. Thus, the sentence above is peculiar
and unacceptable (*) in English semantically. In this case,
woman is sacrificed for the sake of man's superiority in any
kinds of affairs, including breastfeeding (?).
'Man' is also used as a prefix in such examples as man-
power, man- made, and man-hour or as a suffix in
such examples as 'statesman', 'fireman, 'postman',
policeman, etc Such generic uses are commonly
understood as referring to both male and female in
 sentence context. So, when woman will particularly be
mentioned, the terms will be changed markedly into such
examples as post woman, policewoman which, in
fact, cannot be applied generally in all terms. The uses of
pronoun 'he and possessive pronoun 'his/him are also
taken for granted to refer to women and men generally.
The indefinite subject (like one, everyone, etc.) is
changed into the pronoun 'he* as in the following
sentences:
4. One must do what his conscience tells him to do.
5. When an author has completed his manuscript, he can send it to
the publishers.
Gender-specific pronouns are often used in a sexist way to refer to
people working in stereotypically male and female professions; for
sample: If a physics lecturer needs a lab. assistant, he should contact
the secretary* (Mills, 1995: 88). It is commonly known that
professors, doctors, scientists, and engineers tend to be labeled as
male, whereas, secretaries, nurses, teachers as female.
2. The Generic Use of '-won', '-wan' and '-a' in Indonesian
Sanskrit morphemes -wan and '-man' which are adopted in
Indonesian are frequendy used to refer to both male and female.
Based on Budiwati's research (2003), the use of the morphemes as in
sastrawan/artists', 'wartawan/journalists', 'karyawan/officers',
budiman/virtuous person', etc with or without sentence context
shows the men's powerful role in any kinds of affairs in Indonesia. If
the subject refers only to woman, then the morpheme -wati will used
to mark the gender as in budiwati/virtuous woman',
'wartawati/female journalist', karyawan/female officer*, etc. Besides,
the phoneme -a is also generically used to refer to both sexes as in
putra/son/male, mahasiswa/stu- dent', meanwhile the phoneme -i is
only used to refer to only female as in 'putri/daughter/femgie',
mahasiswi/female student*. Such language usages can commonly be
found in written or spoken communication in Indonesian that in this
case, gender bias also pervades Indonesian language.
The generic use ofman*, lie', -wan, -man* and -a* illustrate
that language use routinize power/male dominance, as stated before.
Masculine words have been regarded as generics and used routinely
used in speech or text to refer grammatically to both genders, to
conceal women from hearers or readers (Reid and Hung, 1999).
3. Female's Name Accompanied by Male's Name
Men's dominant role is also presented in mentioning females name.
Female is not quite free to mention her own name, standing itself.
Males name must accompany after it as in Mrs. Hillary Clinton',
Mrs. Nancy Reagan' in English or 'Ibu Tien Soeharto', 'Ibu Purwanto'
in Indonesian. In English, women, married or unmarried, must use
surname (family or husbands name). Meanwhile, in Indonesian
unmarried women usually can use their own name, but then if they
are married, society calls her name with her husband's (Ibu Tien
Soeharto) or even her only husband's name after the term ibu (Ibu
 Purwanto). In line with this, Nilsen observed that a woman's name
must somehow be escorted by a male's name in English standard desk
dictionary (1978: 221).
4. Conventional Order of Male-before-Femaie
In English, the conventional order of combining female and male
words is male-before-female as in Adam and Eve', I now pronounce
you 'husband and wife. So is in Indonesian as in suami istri, 'ayah
dan ibupria-wanita\ For example:
Kita hams mtnghormati ayah dan ibu.
(We must honor father and mother.)
This may simply be a matter of arbitrary convention (Reid and
Sung), but the order represents the degree of interest and power. The
one which comes first is commonly regarded as more important and
powerful than the one which comes later. This convention can also be
included into one of ways to routlnize the men's dominant power
which, then, will be established in society.
5. Several Words and Pairs of Words which Illustrate the More
Powerful Role of the Male
The fact that women are expected to play a passive role while men
play an active role also manifests in English. In English, women's
passivity is shown in the comparisons made to plants. For example, to
'deflower' a woman is to take away her virginity. On the other hand,
when insulting a man, it can be said 'he is like a woman' by calling
him a pansy' (any of various violets, esp. a popular garden hybrid or
an effeminate man - Webster, 276). In Indonesian, there are also some
terms which illustrate women's passivity as 'kegadisannya telah
direnggut/the woman has been deflowered', digagahi/'be raped',
etc. Meanwhile, mens passivity is represented as in menggagahi'Ao
rape, menodai, menggarap, etc.
Active-passive contrast can also be seen in the animal terms used
with males and females. Men are referred to bucks', wolves and
lion, while women have pet names like kitten*, bunny, bird',
lamb and little duck. Budiwati (2007) that English children songs
have implanted such contrast, since the songs mention sheep',
donkey* and pony' as little boys' pets and little lamb', lady bird*,
little kitten, little baby duck as little girls.
In addition to that, the proper names given to boy babies and girl
babies are also illustrated as active-passive role. Girls are more likely
to be given names as ivy*, Rose, Ruby*, Pearl*, Flora*, etc,
while boys are given names describing active roles like Leo* (Lion),
William (protector), Ernest* (resolute fighter) and so on (Nilsen,
221). In Indonesian, it is depicted in the address term for boy as bu-
yung and for girl upik*. Such address term has more pejorative
meaning in Javanese in which little boy is called kuncung* and little
girl is called bawuk*. 'Kun- cung* means part of hair on the top
front of head, while bawuk* means female's vital organ (vagina).
Indeed, this fact, from the early years of life, illustrates how men are
regarded to have dominant role, while women have passive role.
 Several pairs of words in English and Indonesian also illustrate
such role. It can be seen in English 'king* who is usually more
powerful than queen*; count* who has power in certain district,
while countess is only the wife of count; father* as in the founding
father* who has great contributor or in Indonesian, the word bapak
pembangunan* to refer to the President Soeharto.
6. Positive Connotations Connected with the Concept of Masculine
There are many positive connotations connected with the concept of
masculine, while there are trivial and negative connotations
connected with the cor-
responding feminine aspect (Nilsen, 222). In English, the word
tomboy* illustrates a girl who has more freedom than her brother who
is sissy* or who has girly' or negative characteristics for a boy. In
Indonesia the characteristic kece- wek-cewekan/girly has more
negative connotation than kecowok-cowokan'/ boyish. The word
bachelor* or 'jejaka tua in Indonesian is used to refer to a man who is
unmarried because of his own decision to be unmarried or to many later,
while spinster1 or perawan tua refers to a woman has not married yet
because she has not got a man to marry. Then, the other words which the
positive^ negative connotations are squaw'/**kakek sihir*, step
fatherVbapak tin, 'master which have positive or at least neutral
connotations, while witch*/ *nenek sihir, step mother*/*ibu tin,
mistress* which have negative connotations.
Some Alternative Agenda to Balance Gender Role in Language The
linguistic evidences depicted in the previous explanation have brought
the consequence of the creation of new vocabularies as the feminist
agenda. A number of alternative guidelines for non-sexist language have
been proposed by American Philosophical Association (APA). The
guidelines present a large number of alternative terms and examples to
reduce bias in English and were published in 1986. The other guidelines
have also been proposed by National Council of Teachers of English
(NOTE) and revised in 1985. However, so far guidelines for non-sexist
Indonesian language have not been arranged and proposed yet.
Of course, the movement is not quite enough to balance the gender
role in English without language gatekeepers commitment to agree the
proposal and to socialize the policy to the society. In fact, the language
gatekeepers or the policy holders (lexicographers, official state
language center) in language are not the only decision makers to change
language to reduce bias; there are still other sides like government
(legislative, executive, and judicative senate), language teachers, society,
and so on. As one of considerable agenda, the effort to balance gender
role in any language should be done in simultaneous and integrated steps
as the following:
Terms Redefinition and Revision in Standard Dictionaries Since
standard dictionaries have great contribution to the illustrations of fe-
 male-male items or sex-stereotyped examples, revision should be
conducted to change the words meaning, to review the language change
may occur. The prejudices and preferences of lexicographers who
compose them must be reduced or omitted. The negative prejudices
toward women should be revised and alternative terms and examples
can be presented in revised edition. To do so, the proposed guidelines
from APA and NCTE or any other associations can become input.
In Indonesia, some suggestions can be proposed to Pusat
Pengembangan Bahasa (Language Development Center) which usually
carries out revision on Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (Standard
Indonesian Dictionary) in every five years. The center is
official/government institution which has supreme right to
cany our revision in Indonesia. Therefore, guidelines of non-sexist
Indonesian language should be arranged soon to be proposed to the
concerned institution.
9. Government Language Policy and Planning which contain Gender
Awareness The Indonesian Language Development Center and the
concerned department like National Education Department should
work together to arrange language policy and planning which contain
gender awareness. Language planning is a conceptual and political
consideration which is meant to plan, lead, and determine things to be
baas for arranging and managing all linguistic problems faced by a
nation (in Chaer and Agustina, 1995: 232). Then, According to
Haugen, language planning is an attempt to guide the development of
language toward the required direction by the planners (Ibid, 240).
The language policy is national basis to make language planning,
how to guide and develop a language as verbal communication
means to be employed properly in the whole country, and acceptable
by all citizens who have different ethnic, sex, culture and so on.
Language planning is a guided attempt to influence the future.
Therefore, those two concerned departments have great contribution
to make policy and planning on Indonesian non-sexist language. This
policy and planning will overcome gender bias problem in Indonesian
In fact, a good early step has been conducted by National Education
Department which has held training on gender-based school management
and Teaching-Learning process in gender-responsive school. However,
this step must be followed-up with legalizing it on act. The Indonesia
Language Center should also do such step dealing with non-sexist
Indonesian language.
10. Socialization of Gender Awareness Program in Language
After formulating non-sexist language policy and planning and legalizing
them on act, the government (the concerned departments) should socialize
them to such the concerned sides as educators, book industry, library, state
apparatus/administrators, mass media, trained and skillful officers on
language and society. The more institutions/persons take part, the more
effective the application of non-sexist language is. The socialization should
be done simultaneously as pervasive national movement as usually done
by government in other field like "Gerakan MenabungVSaving
Movement or Gerakan Menanam Pohon'/Tree Planting Movement, etc
In fine with that, this action may be called Gerakan Bahasa Sadar
Gender"/Gender-responsive Language Movement or "Stop Sexist
Language.
11. Curriculum and Teaching-Learning Improvement on Language
Education in All Levels
What has been done by National Education Department dealing with
training on gender-based school management and gender-responsive
teaching and learning process is a very good and wise step to improve the
curriculum and teaching-learning process. In this training the policy
holder at schools as the headmasters, teachers and officers are being
involved since they have great
 contribution in educating students. Their language awareness and usage
in the class will also influence the students to use the non-sexist
language consciously- In tins case, the model critical language study
and social emancipation by Norman Fairdough (stated in theoretical
framework) can be applied in language education in the schools. By
applying the model, the teachers, students and the involved sides are
hoped to acquire critical language awareness which, then, result in the
non-sexist language usage.

Conclusion
Based on Sodolinguisdc Study and Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA), the men's more powerful role or sexist 1 terms manifest in
English and Indonesian. English and Indonesian have: 1) the male-
dominated generic use, 2) female's name accompanied by male's
name; 3) conventional order of male-before-female; 4) several words
and pairs of words which illustrate the more powerful role of the
male, and 5) a number of positive connotations connected with the
concept of masculine.
From the sexist linguistic evidences, some alternative agenda to
balance gender role in language could be suggested; they are 1) terms
redefinition and revision in standard dictionaries; 2) government
language policy and planning; 3) socialization of gender awareness
program in language; and 4) curriculum and teaching-learning im-
provement on language education in all levels. In summary, the study
is meant to be a critical language awareness to build more non-sexist
communication, and the agenda are expected to be conducted to
create more gender-responsive world.

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