More than four decades after the commencement of feminist linguistic activities, the author critically analyses the bottlenecks in the implementation of the European Spanish non-sexist language policies. Through the lenses of language planning, this study demonstrates that these obstacles are, firstly, the difficulty faced by feminist language planning in pervading the different domains and secondly, the limitations posed by language practices, beliefs and management. Other principal factors include inadequate attention to the role of local contexts in the implementation of gender-fair language. Using a survey, the author finally provides current data on speakers’ acceptance or rejection of non-sexist language alternatives. It also provides qualitative data on participants’ reaction to anti-sexist language reform attempts and discusses how these factors can be taken into consideration in feminist language planning.

In order to establish the impact of antisexist language proposals on the Spanish language, questionnaires were administered to discover factors that can obstruct or facilitate the elimination of linguistic sexism. Issues that were investigated included speakers’ perceptions about sexism in Spanish, speakers’ opinions about the relevance of language reform and speakers’ reaction to antisexist lan-guage proposals. Despite the challenges faced by feminist linguistic campaigns, some positive changes in reactions to nonsexist language suggestions were found. This paper reveals that these changes are encouraging indicators of the potential success of language reform attempts.

Increasingly incorporated into curricula worldwide, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is a complex and evolving area of education. As the significance of GCE in the classroom grows, so does the ne...

Although research on language and gender has focused largely on gendered languages, not much attention has been given to genderless languages. The current study attempts to explore gender ideologies and sexism in Ga, which is a genderless language. Based on an interdisciplinary approach to this multifaceted problem, the author aims at critically reviewing the construction and representation of gender identities through language using Glick and Fiske’s ambivalent sexism theory and feminist critical discourse analysis of data collected from focus group discussions and interviews. Among other things, this study shows how discourses of biological essentialism are used to justify what is presented as a natural gender order.