Steve Johnson
 

Over the last few decades of sociolinguistic work, women have overwhelmingly been found to be leaders of linguistic change, while men tend lag behind (cf. Eckert, 1989, Labov 1990,Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 1998), although there are also a few male-led changes (e.g. Conn 2005). These studies tend to implement gender as a binary, categorical variable instead of as continua of socially constructed femininity and masculinity. Additionally, this use of gender as a binary variable may oversimplify the role of gender in variation with a failure to explain the vast variation that exists within a group of men or within a group of females, such as the linguistic differences between “innovative” and “conservative” women (Labov 2001).
            This paper explores the role that men play in the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), an ongoing, female-led sound change occurring in the Inland North. In this study of male undergraduates at Michigan State University, self-ratings on a battery of 60 personality traits based on Bem’s (1974) Sex Role Inventory are correlated with progression (or resistance) to this local sound change. Preliminary results indicate that men who strongly self-identify as “cheerful” and “affectionate,” traits that are traditionally more desirable for women to possess than for men, are those who pattern similarly to women in leading- the NCS.  Additionally, results suggest that variation along the femininity continuum in men rather than masculinity accounts for participation or resistance to this linguistic change. These results support Gurman and Long’s (1992) finding that femininity rather than masculinity is correlated to leadership behavior and reaffirms Eckert’s (2000) assertion of the need to look within sex-based groupings to truly understand the primary importance of gender on behavior.

Work Cited

            Bem, S. (1974). "The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42: 155-162.
            Conn, Jeffrey. (2005). Of Moice and Men: The Evolution of a Male-Led Sound Change. PhD dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
            Eckert, Penelope. (1989). The whole woman: sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change 1:245-267.
            Eckert, P. (2000) Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High, Oxford, Blackwell
            Gurman, E., & Long, K. (1992). Gender orientation and emergent leader behavior. Sex Roles, 27, 391-400.
            Labov, William. (1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change 2: 205-254.
            Labov, William. (2000). Principles of Linguistic change. Volume II: Social Factors. Oxford: Blackwell.
            Wolfram, Walt and Natalie Schilling-Estes. (1998). American English : Dialects and Variation. Oxford: Blackwell.