Abstract
The feminist movement has caused society to begin to analyze itself and question social behavior that tends to perpetuate the oppression of women. Language; as social behavior; is the means for interacting with human beings and the mirror of their activities and prejudices. In this study the production of masculine and feminine nouns is analyzed in a context that promotes or inhibits the selection of specific nouns. Through this means it is also shown with percentage tables that what causes the interviewee to favor one gender over another are not linguistic criteria; but the projection of his/her own sex; its vital experience; its prejudices. Next; the effectiveness of generic nouns to embrace both sexes is considered and it is concluded that in spite of the generic intention; these usually are interpreted specifically; that is; omitting the woman as co-referent of the utterance.
Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.