Introduction

In reflecting on the position of Gender Articulated in the current context of language and gender research, we have found it useful to return to the field’s foundational text, Robin Lakoff’s Language and Woman’s Place (1975). This is both a timely undertaking, coinciding as it does with the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the book, and a necessary one, for no other study of women’s language has been as influential and as controversial as Lakoff’s volume. At the time of its publication, Language and Woman’s Place was met with widespread criticism, yet it launched a far-reaching program of research on language and gender whose effects we still feel today. In light of this apparent paradox and in recognition of the book’s continuing influence, the need for a reassessment is evident. ¹