A Discourse analysis on attitudes towards women

“Women are the blah blah some quote” : 

“Women are the blah blah some quote” Author of the Quote

I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body.  ~ Elaine Boosler ~: 

I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body. ~ Elaine Boosler ~ A Socio-linguistic A pproach to Attitudes towards W omen Group Members Hifla Bhanu Upekha Gamage Chanaka Palliyaguru Mandakini Akmeemana Lasantha Bandaranayake

Objective: 

Objective To compare and contrast the attitudes between individuals within the academic environment and individuals outside the academic environment, paying attention to socio-linguistic features through data mining and discourse analysis.

Target Groups : 

Target Groups Group 1 Academic Around age 20-25 3 Females 2 Males Students Lecturers Familiar with the discourse Group 2 Non-Academic Around age 40-65 2 Males 3 Females Outside the University No comprehensive input of the subject

How did we do it ?: 

How did we do it ? Interviews (recorded) Five Individuals within the university Five individuals outside the university Transcribing the interviews Analyzing the qualitative data emanated from interviews. Identifying linguistic features Organizing idea patterns Other Sources Marriage Advertisements Internet Forums Newspapers (textual discourse)

General observations : 

General observations Usage of G generic pronouns ‘he’ and ‘man ’. Words such as ‘mankind ’ Job titles ending in ‘-man ’ Chairman, Spokesman. (‘Mrs’/‘Miss’), where women are defined in terms of their relationship to a man . Sri Lankan slang - disrespectful towards females. Ignoring the usage of අම ාත්‍යවරි ය, මන්ත්‍රිනිය, සභාපතිනිය , නායිකාව etc.

Response: 

Response Gender Social Class Ethnicity / Religion Age Education Peer Group Political correctness Affected by

Marriage: 

Marriage Dowry “ Dowry system…. (pauses) I don’t think it’s good. When a woman is willing to provide a dowry that is fine, other than that it’s rather stupid, you know…, to expect a woman to bring a dowry with her. Because I mean…why should a woman bring a dowry all the time. why can’t a man bring? ” “ එයාට හම්බවෙන දේට මොකටද අපි එපා කියන්නේ.” Household responsibilities “ But like..i mean you shouldn’t essentialize right? I mean you shouldn’t say that woman should always cook .” “ Reproduct ! (laughs) that is the sole duty expected from a woman. In any society that is kind of a duty. Right.. Other than that cook and look after. ”

Proffered Characteristics - Dowry: 

Proffered Characteristics - Dowry

Marriage….: 

Marriage…. Right to raise children “ It depends on her . ” “ ඊළඟ පරම්පරාව බිහිවෙන්නට ඇය දරුවන් වැදිය යුතුයි. ඒ කාර්යයේදී කාන්තාවක් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨත්වයට පත්වන්නේ ඇය දරුවන් ප්‍රසුත කළහොත් පමණයි ” Right to employment after marriage “ If she likes she can work if she doesn’t she can stay at home.” “ මව තුල අපේක්ෂා කලේ නිවසේ රැඳේමින් දරුවන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආදරය කර ුණාව සහ අනාගත පුරවැසියන්ට අවශ්‍ය මග පෙන්විමයි. Domestic violence “ It’s difficult to say but it usually happens in different forms .”

Preferred characteristics - Fairness : 

Preferred characteristics - Fairness

Women in Politics: 

Women in Politics Most of the female members of the parliament were chosen to replace their husbands Fariel Ashroff Srimani Dissanayake Sirimavo Bandaranaike Chandrika Bandaranaike Sudarshani Fernandopullai Or famous actresses Geetha Kumarasinghe Upeksha Swarnamali Anarkali Akarsha Malini Fonseka

Women & Leadership : 

Women & Leadership Not respecting women’s leadership Demanding s exual favors, when promotions are given. Sexual harassment in the work place Relatively low wages are given to female workers in labour intensive jobs. “ ඉත ාමත්ම මනා පුහුණුවක්, බුද්ධියක් හා පරිචයක් ලබා දුනහොත් මම හිතන්නේ ඇයට පුළුවන් කියල පුරුෂාධිපත්‍ය අභිබවා යමින් නිවැරදි මනා නායකත්වයක් ලබා දෙන්නට. “

Women & Leadership: 

Women & Leadership “ Generally there is a bias against women. Right?? But you know you cant always say that just because someone is a woman she doesn’t have any right to leadership or anything like that. But society I think has some kind of bias against women , but I don’t think that is right. “ sometimes a woman might face practical difficulties when encountering a problem. But I think even now what really matters is making decisions. I mean it’s not like a woman has to lead an army. She doesn’t have to do that. She just has to give orders. Anybody could face challenges when he or she is a leader. So yeah obviously woman would have challenges..It depends on the person right .If the woman has good leadership skills, then I suppose she will tackle these problems better than other women..other men,other leaders.

Education : 

Education “ Today most females are educated, not like past. But there are some fields that women are not seen in like engineering, architecture , surveying … etc.” “ Yeah …., every women should be educated to run the household to help children’s education and for her day to day activities.”

Interview I (60 years old – Retired Government Officer): 

Interview I (60 years old – Retired Government Officer) කාන්තාවගෙන් ඉටුවිය යුතු දෙය නම් කුඩා අවධියේ දරුවන්ට මග පෙන්වීමයි.  මේකට බුදු දහමෙන් උදාහරණයක් ගතහොත්, පුබ්බාචාරින් ලෙස හඳුන්වන්නේ මව සහ පියා. විශේෂයෙන්ම මව. පිය සාම්ප්‍රදායික සමාජය තුල පවුලෙන් වෙන්ව වාසය කරන්නේ ජිවන වෘත්තිය සඳහා. මව තුල අපේක්ෂා කලේ න ිවසේ රැඳෙමින් දරුවන්ට අවශ්‍ය ආදරය කරුණාව සහ අනාගත පුරවැසියන් සඳහා තිබිය යුතු මග පෙන්වීම කරන එක. Religious endorsement Adherence to convention

Interview 2 (23 years old - undergraduate): 

Interview 2 (23 years old - undergraduate) …if the woman can cook and the man cannot cook so well I suppose then the woman should cook. If she falls ill or something or if she finds herself in a situation where she cannot cook I suppose then the man will have to take over. But you shouldn’t essentialize You shouldn’t say that woman should always cook. if the man likes to cook well he can do so. It depends. You cannot really ask the question…what role should a woman play in a household. It differs from woman to woman, like some women are good at cooking and some women are not. It depends on the couple actually. Right?? So It depends on their personal skills. Very open-minded

Interview 3 (32 years old - Arts grduate/Software Engineer): 

Interview 3 (32 years old - Arts grduate/Software Engineer) මම විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයට යන කාලේ මම පෞද්ගලිකව විශ්වාස කල දෙයක් තමා, කාන්තාවක් වීම නිසා හෝ පුරුෂයෙක් වීම නිසා පුද්ගලයෙක්ට වෙනසක් සිදුව විය යුතු නැහැයි කියන එක. එක මම ඉතා දැඩි ලෙස විශ්වාස කල එක value එකක්. නමුත් කාලය ගත වීමත් එක්ක, ඒක යම්තාක් දුරට වෙනස් වෙලා තියෙනවා. උදාහරණයක් විදියට මම දරුවෙක් සිටින පියෙක්. පියෙ ක් ගෙදරට මුදල් රැගෙන එද්දී මවක් ඒ දරුවට අවශ්‍ය උණුසුම රැකවරණ ලබා දෙන්න ඕන. මං හිතනව parenting වලදී විශේෂයෙන්ම මවකට තිබෙන role ඒක ඉතාමත් විශේෂ දෙයක්. Change of attitudes

New Trends: 

New Trends

Conclusions: 

Conclusions Comparatively academics had more liberal attitudes towards women. They were more open-minded. Attitudes towards women could change over the time, context and various other reasons. Different attitudes in theory and practice. Individuals tend to generalize their opinion Usage of the word “they” to address the society common beliefs. Opinions were somewhat inexact or ambiguous. e .g. – Pauses, / not giving direct answers

Problems faced : 

Problems faced We felt that we should have done a preliminary study about the discourse before interviewing the individuals. We felt that individuals sometimes doesn’t reveal what the actually mean, thus conversation analysis is limited. Limited time constraint to gather quantitative data to make generalizations regarding the discourse.

Thank You : 

Thank You     