Don't touch my projectile: Gender bias and stereotyping in syntactic examples

Abstract

This article presents the results of two studies which show that gender bias and stereotyping are widespread in the example sentences of syntax textbooks. Results from both studies indicate that little has changed over the past twenty-five years: virtually all of the authors favor male-gendered NPs as subjects and agents and regularly stereotype both genders. Throughout the paper we make reference to the LSA guidelines for nonsexist usage , pointing out the need for such guidelines, and highlighting the gaps in the current version.