Gender and the politics of language in Ghana

This study looks at the issue of “Gender and the politics of language in Ghana” It examines the extent to which the use of language depicts the “inferiority” of female and the “superiority” of the males in the country. In other words, the study intends finding out whether language is used to promote gender neutrality or encourage gender bias in the Ghanaian society. The study was conducted through a content analysis of some columns in the popular Ghanaian Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Chronicle newspapers over a period of three months. The analysis was specifically based on the issue of how language is used to relegate women to the background in the form of the usage of gender biased generic terms in the Ghanaian print media. It was found out that within the Ghanaian print media, gender neutral or inclusive generic terms were used to a very large extent as compared to the usage of gender bias or exclusive generic terms indicating a lower trend in the use of gender bias language in the country. If the suggested measures by this study such as giving equal chance to both sexes in terms of words, pictures or illustrations in the writing of textbooks or readers are carried out it would go a long way to create more gender neutrality in language usage which will help us develop.