Female Sociolinguists

[Miriam Meyerhoff]

As always this sort of thing quickly turns into some kind of weird
popularity contest, the rules of which never seem to be clearly
articulated by anyone involved.

Speaking now as someone who has seen this debate from several
different perspectives (reviewer, user, contributor and contributing
editor), can I point out that there are a number of factors affecting
who gets included or not in these things. When I reviewed Raj
Mesthrie's (excellent) Conside Encyclopedia of Sociolx, I of course
commented on this and did a count of the number of males and females
in the biographies he provided. I've also recently been involved in a
an even larger project (the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of
Language and Linguistics) which has commissioned a very large number
of biographies. (see
http://www1.elsevier.com/homepage/sal/ellei/data/classified/e.html)
Issues of representation in the biographies were discussed at length
by the editorial board.

An even larger number, including many more women and many more
non-Anglophone linguists were originally proposed, but it is my
understanding that they have fallen on the "cutting room floor" (as
it were) because it has not always been possible to find someone who
was willing to write a biography for a deserving person (you'd be
surprised how many people turn down requests like this, even when
they will be paid for them!), and on some occasions people have asked
to, or agreed to write a biography and then failed to produce it by
deadline (despite numerous reminders).

I am not saying that there aren't genuine issues relating to
representation in the field, however, I would like to point out some
of the things that are relevant here (many of which I was not aware
of, for instance, when I reviewed Mesthrie's CES).

mm

>Thanks to all of you who have replied to my message. I should point out
>that I'm reviewing the dictionary for a journal (rather than a
>publishing house) so I can't influence its current form, only comment on
>it. It's helpful to have all of your comments for my critique, however.
>
>I should also add that the dictionary seems, otherwise, very good and,
>as I said, to be commended for even noting the preponderance of male
>academics in the introductory section.
>
>For interest, here's a list of who makes it into the dictionary as
>scholars relevant to sociolinguistics:
>
>Academics named:
>.	Mikhail Bakhtin
>.	Basil Bernstein
>.	Derek Bickerton
>.	Pierre Bourdieu
>.	Norman Fairclough
>.	Charles Ferguson
>.	J.R.Firth
>.	Joshua Fishman
>.	Michel Foucault
>.	Erving Goffman
>.	John Gumperz
>.	M.A. K. Halliday
>.	Shirley Brice Heath
>.	Dell H. Hymes
>.	Braj Kachru
>.	William Labov
>.	Robin Lakoff
>.	Bronislaw Malinowski
>.	Valentin Nikolaevich Voloshinov
>.	Lev Vygotsky
>
>As you'll notice, there are just 2 women: Robin Lakoff and Shirley Brice
>Heath. Both highly respected, but it's unclear why these two make it in
>and not some of the others you have all mentioned.
>
>Many thanks,
>Emma.
>
>PS - Yes, Bourdieu is, of course, a Francophone. My mistake - the
>authors of the dictionary do actually say "Anglophone (or European)".
>
>*********************************************************************
>Dr Emma Moore
>Lecturer in Sociolinguistics; Admissions Tutor
>Department of English Language and Linguistics
>University of Sheffield
>5 Shearwood Road
>Sheffield
>S10 2TN
>UK
>
>Phone: +44 (0)114 222 0232
>Fax: +44 (0)114 222 0240
>E-mail: e.moore at sheffield.ac.uk
>Webpage: http://www.shef.ac.uk/english/language/staff/emmam.html
>
>********************************************************************


--
Miriam Meyerhoff
Reader, Linguistics & English Language
University of Edinburgh
40 George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LL
SCOTLAND

ph.: +44 131 650-3961 or 651-1836
fax: +44 131 650-3962

http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~mhoff