#MindTheAdjective Newsletter (09.18.19)

Things only change if we collectively work on changing them. We can start with our language. 

Dr. Maya Angelou, the revered late poet, often stressed the power of one's words and being mindful when you speak. “You must be careful. Care about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance,” she said during an interview for Oprah's Super Soul Conversations podcast. “Don’t do that.”

Her reasoning? Words can slowly eat away at you until they finally define you, whether or not you have consciously chosen to be defined in that way. Ultimately, words become your belief system. Our belief systems lead to practices that are discriminatory in nature, which in turn, lead to long-term consequential disparities such as unequal pay. 

Our choice of words, but in particular the adjectives we choose, can reinforce gender stereotypes and unconscious bias. When women show stereotypically-masculine leadership traits, they get labeled as bossy, aggressive, or worse. When men show stereotypically-feminine emotional traits, they get labeled as weak, wuss, or worse. The adjectives used on them perpetuate gender inequalities. That said, biased language doesn't just negatively affect women in the workplace; schoolchildren on the playground are also negatively affected.

#MindTheAdjective helps us remember to choose our words wisely at home, work, school or any other social setting. Every single day. By changing our language, we change cultural norms and fundamentally shift the way our society works. Our small changes in language have the power to dismantle inequalities related to gender. Remember that every effort counts and together we can create a society that is truly equal.