ABSTRACT
Over the last twenty years, language and gender has established itself as a key research area in sociolinguistics. It is very difficult to believe that thirty years ago the field did not exist: it is now a thriving industry. Countless books and articles and conference papers are written every year on the topic. But inevitably there have been changes. Since Robin Lakoff’s seminal work Language and Woman’s Place appeared in 1975, research topics have multiplied and theoretical approaches have come into fashion and gone out of fashion again. In particular, ideas about gender have changed radically.
