Sexism and Attitudes Toward Gender-Neutral Language: The Case of English, French, and German
Abstract
We examined the relationships between three forms of sexism (modern, benevolent, and hostile) and two components of attitudes toward gender-neutral language (attitudes toward gender-related language reforms and recognition of sexist language) across different contexts. A questionnaire study (N = 446) was conducted among students in the United Kingdom and in two (French- and German-speaking) regions of Switzerland. While we expected to find that all forms of sexism are generally related to negative attitudes toward gender-neutral language, we expected attitudes to be more positive and less related to sexist beliefs in a context in which gender-neutral language is firmly established (the UK) compared to contexts in which the use of gender-neutral language was introduced only recently (the German-speaking part of Switzerland) or is still seldom (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). We found that, across all contexts, modern and hostile sexist beliefs were indeed related to negative attitudes toward gender-related language reforms, while, intriguingly, benevolent sexist beliefs were related to positive attitudes in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Recognition of sexist language was significantly related to modern sexism only. Finally, British students were found to express more positive attitudes toward gender-neutral language (both components) than Swiss students.
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In Sczesny et al. (2015), a negative relationship between modern sexism and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language was found.
“Similar to Sarrasin et al. (2012), a negative relationship between modern sexism and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language was found.”
From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Sarrasin et al. (2012)
In Sarrasin et al. (2012), English participants had higher scores for recognition of sexist language than Swiss (German-speaking and French-speaking) participants.
“Results showed higher scores for English than Swiss participants, something which may reflect socio-political differences between the countries but could also reflect effects of grammatical gender with English being a natural gender language and French and German both having a grammatical gender system.”
From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Sarrasin et al. (2012)
Only modern sexism had a significant impact on correct identification of sexist language, making it more difficult for those with high modern sexism scores to recognize sexist expressions.
“Regarding the correct identification of sexist language, only modern sexism was found to have a significant impact, making it more difficult for those with high modern sexism scores to recognize sexist expressions.”
From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Sarrasin et al. (2012)
In the study, attitudes toward gender-inclusive language were negatively correlated with modern and hostile sexism, whereas benevolent sexism had no effect.
“were negatively correlated with modern and hostile sexism whereas benevolent sexism had no effect.”
From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Sarrasin et al. (2012)
Resistance toward gender-inclusive language is associated with sexist attitudes, and sexist attitudes are associated with lower acceptance of gender-inclusive language.
“Resistance toward gender-inclusive language is associated with sexist attitudes (Norton & Herek, 2013; Sarrasin et al., 2012)”
From A Sexist Language? Gender Differences in Attitudes and Use of Gender-Inclusive Pronouns (2025) · cites this paper as Sarrasin et al., 2012
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A Caution Regarding Rules of Thumb for Variance Inflation Factors
O’brien, R. M. (2007) · Quality & Quantity · doi:10.1007/s11135-006-9018-6 · Cited by 11,217 · see citing works
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The influence of linguistic and social attitudes on grammaticality judgments of singular ‘they’
Bradley, E. D. (2020) · Language Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101272 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review
Lange, E., & von Stockhausen, L. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1657753 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
A Sexist Language? Gender Differences in Attitudes and Use of Gender-Inclusive Pronouns
Remsö, A., Bäck, H., & Renström, E. A. (2025) · Journal of Language and Social Psychology · doi:10.1177/0261927x251335305 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Resistance toward gender-inclusive language is associated with sexist attitudes (Norton & Herek, 2013; Sarrasin et al., 2012), and individuals with stronger sexist attitudes tend to be less sensitive to sexist language (Swim et al., 2004), use more gender-biased words (Cralley & Ruscher, 2005), and…”
- Authors
- Sarrasin, O., Gabriel, U., & Gygax, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Fribourg (CH)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- Venue
- Swiss Journal of Psychology
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing Group
- Published
- 2012-01
- Volume
- 71
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 113-124
- ISSN
- 1421-0185 (ISSN-L)
- 1662-0879
- OpenAlex
- W1543358578
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 14.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Swiss Journal of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- sexism, gender-neutral language, modern sexism, benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, cross-cultural comparison, United Kingdom, French-speaking Switzerland, German-speaking Switzerland
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