ABSTRACT
The in¯uence of the discursive turn has meant that, increasingly, there has been a shift away from studying how language re¯ects (and helps to perpetuate) women's disadvantage. Instead, there is a greater emphasis placed on the constitutive role of language in relation to social reality. Instead of viewing gender as something separate from, but related to, the study of language, it is increasingly treated as a socially constructed category. Language does not merely mirror social beliefs about gender and re¯ect the nature of gender identity. Rather, it is through language (and discourse) that gender is produced and gains its signi®cance as a social category. Thus, the study of texts and talk in interaction become prime sites for examining gender.
