Changing 'man made language': Sexist language and feminist linguistic activism in Australia

In this chapter, Amanda Laugesen, considers what she calls ‘feminist linguistic activism’ in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. She firstly considers the international feminist and academic concern with the gendered nature of language. Some of the concrete efforts made to shape language use, through style guides and the use of titles such as ‘Ms’, are examined in an effort to assess what changes were made, or at least attempted, in terms of shaping official public language, such as the language of government. Finally, she considers criticisms made at the time of such change, and the subsequent debates that continue to the present around so-called political correctness. These suggest a strong and continuing resistance and backlash to changes in language and usage.