Cover not available

Article published In: Language and Gender in the Australian Context
Edited by Joanne Winter and Gillian Wigglesworth
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Series S 10] 1993
► pp. 35–53

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The representation of women in three medical texts

 | Monash University
Published online: 1 January 1993
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aralss.10.03har
Abstract
The theoretical framework of this paper is based on the literature on language and ideology as well as language and gender, focussing on the reflection of gender ideologies in medical texts. Three medical texts were analysed with regard to the linguistic representation of women. While one text is taken from a gynaecological textbook, the other two texts are representative of popular medical books. The main objective of the study was to determine how ideologies of gender are reflected in the authors’ choice of lexis, and the syntactic relations in the texts. The findings indicated that the use of language mirrors the ideological orientation of the authors, and that medical discourse is characterised to a large degree by sexist language.
References (17)
References
Bleier, R. (1984) Science and gender: A critique of biology and its theories on women. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (1984) The new our bodies, ourselves: A book by and for women. Boston: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, D.(ed.) (1990) The feminist critique of language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Connell, R.W. (1987) Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and power. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fluck, H.R. (1985) Fachsprachen. Tubingen: Francke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freidson, E. (1986) Professional powers: A study of the institutionalization of formal knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kahn, J. (1983) Modes of medical instruction: A semiotic comparison of textbooks of medicine and popular home medical books. Berlin: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaufert, P.A. & S.M. McKinlay (1985) Estrogen-replacement therapy: The production of medical knowledge. In E. Lewin and V. Olesen (eds) Women, health and healing: Toward a new perspective. New York: Tavistock.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koutroulis, G. (1990) The orifice revisited: Women in gynaecological texts. Community Health Studies XIV1: 73–84.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krenn, M. (1986) Satz- und textsyntaktische Merkmale englischer medizinischer Fachsprache. In A. Burkhardt and K.-H. Korner (eds) Pragmantax. Tubingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, G. (1985) Linguistic processes in sociocultural practice. Geelong: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llewellyn-Jones, D. (1982) Fundamentals of obstetrics and gynaecology Vol. II1. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loening, P. (1981) Zur medizinischen Fachsprache: Stilistische Gliederung und Textanalysen. Muttersprache 911: 79–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pauwels, A. (1991) Non-discriminatory language. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, F.H., F.J. Guest, G.K. Stewart and R.A. Hatcher (1979) My body, my health: The concerned woman’s guide to gynaecology. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waitzkin, H. (1989) A critical theory of medical discourse: Ideology, social control, and the processing of social context in medical encounters. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 301: 220–239. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Lee, Jackie F.K. & Peter Collins
2009. Australian English‐language textbooks: the gender issues. Gender and Education 21:4 ► pp. 353 ff. DOI logo
de Crespigny, Lachlan
2003. Words matter. Clinics in Perinatology 30:1 ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue