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Gendered Language

Author

Listed:
  • Pamela Jakiela

    (Center for Global Development
    University of Maryland
    BREAD
    IZA)

  • Owen Ozier

    (World Bank Development Research Group
    BREAD
    IZA)

Abstract

Languages use different systems for classifying nouns. Gender languages assign nouns to distinct sex-based categories, masculine and feminine. We construct a new data set, documenting the presence or absence of grammatical gender in more than 4,000 languages which together account for more than 99 percent of the world’s population. We ï¬ nd a robust negative cross-country relationship between prevalence of gender languages and women’s labor force participation and educational attainment. We replicate these associations in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in India, showing that educational attainment and female labor force participation are lower among those whose native languages use grammatical gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Pamela Jakiela & Owen Ozier, 2019. "Gendered Language," Working Papers 500, Center for Global Development, revised 17 Apr 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:500
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    1. repec:zbw:bofitp:2020_009 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Francis Osei‐Tutu & Laurent Weill, 2021. "Sex, language and financial inclusion," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 369-403, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    grammatical gender; language; gender; linguistic determinism; labor force participation; educational attainment; gender gaps;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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