Verbal Hygiene for Women: Linguistics Misapplied?

Abstract

In recent years, practices of language and communication training have developed whose rationale is to enhance the effectiveness of women's communicative style in public and professional settings. The underlying assumption, drawn in part from scholarly research on gender differences in the use of language, is that women as a group experience problems in certain linguistic domains, and that these should be addressed as part of a strategy to achieve equal opportunities. This paper examines communication training aimed at women as an example of linguistics applied to real-world problems and argues that, in this case, both the problem and the proposed solution are sociolinguistically and politically misconceived.