浅析英语中的性别歧视现象

　　(sexist)It is a party that held by the officers and theirspouses.(nonsexist)4.3 Coining new corresponding wordsThe gender bias can also be seen in the way that women areaddressed through their social relations to men. The termsMiss and Mrs. indicate the sex and marital status of the womanwhile the term Mr. indicates the sex only. It is unbalancedand unnecessary to specify the marital status of women but notof men.

　　Since the 1960s,feminists had coined a new word “Ms” tode-emphasize the improper perception of marital status as adefinitive feature of a woman's identity and personality. Thenew term Ms, which is a combination of Miss and Mrs.,functions as an exact counterpart of the term Mr.. Women whoobject to having a title that is marked for marital statushave adopted “Ms”. There are also some other examples, such assalesman and saleslady, housewife and househusband, bride andbridegroom and so on. [19]

　　But there are some aspects of language that are more resistantto change. For example, the word history comes from Greekroot for such concepts as inquiring, knowing and learning.

　　Women have pointed out the irony of the word history. Theysay, it has told only “his story". So they created the word“herstory” (a word not recognized by standard dictionaries) toemphasize that women' s lives, deeds and participation inhuman affairs have been neglected or undervalued in standardhistories. However, both linguists and common speakers find itabsurd to change ‘history’ into “herstory”.

　　4.4 Alternatives to Addressing TermsAddressing terms are very important in our dailycommunication, and gender discrimination certainly has someinfluence on them. In English, there are many addresses usedto look down upon the females. In order to solve the problem,there are some strategies that may help: