De-Gendering of Genderlect: A Case of Higher Education Institutions in Odisha

Relationships and tensions between gender and language have intrigued scholars for the past decades. Early scholars labelled woman's language as 'deficit' using man's language and communication style as a benchmark which triggered criticism from some scholars. Scholars were of the opinion that the inferiority of a woman's linguistic style was a reflection of the role she played in society. The idea that there is a difference between men and women gives the possibility of a theory based on gendered communication styles. Since the last two to three decades, more and more women have been entering the workforce and there has been a growing discussion on gender and language. Minimizing communication gap between male and female in the organization plays a significant role for the organizational success as the workplace might be impacted by the two styles of communication. Unless the communication gap is minimized, the world will look divided and so is the workplace. This paper aims to study the existence of two types of genderlects and difference of the communication style of male and female employees in today's workplace with the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the genderlects and the intermingling of the two styles of communication in the organization. It aims to study the differences and similarities between female and male genderlect in the workplace, and to explore de-gendering of the communication style in genderlects.