Gender as a Social Construct. A Study of Women’s Language Use in Selected Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Various approaches have been used to describe how women use language in the society. They range from the deficit approach, dominance and difference approaches to the modern social constructionist approach. This study observed that the various roles played by men and women in the society influence the type of language they use. These roles are not biological, but are social, constructs which are not fixed but depend on the cultural and social aspects of the conversation. Feminism in recent times has redefined the way women see themselves and the way they are seen. Using the social constructionist approach, this study examined features of women speeches in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Purple Hibiscus. From the extracts drawn from these novels, it becomes apparent that reality shapes our language use and that women’s speech is no longer the stereotypical, dull, indirect or unassertive type of the past, but if anything, women’s speech has evolved to reflect the social realities of women in contemporary times - the era of feminismand gender equality.