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By Matt • 12 years ago

Sexist use of widow/widower in the news

Something I have noticed in the press, especially in my own country (Great Britain) is how a woman whose husband has died is referred to as “his widow” but a man whose wife has died is not referred to as “her widower”.  I know this dates back to the era when women were defined by men, but in this day and age is this unequal usage of widow/widower relevant?

I have noticed on some websites that it now seems commonplace to say “widower of” whoever, but I found this link to the 2006 AP Stylebook that says “husband” should be used to refer to the spouse of a deceased woman, yet states that referring to a woman as “the widow of” whoever is acceptable.

http://www.mdjwebcontent.com/tj/2006_APSTYLEBOOK.pdf

I don’t know why this example of sexist language still persists in a  style guide.  TV news in Britain still refers to the spouse of a dead man as “his widow” but refers to the spouse of a dead woman as “her husband.

Not one guide to English usage states that when a married man dies, his spouse has to be called “his widow” or do any English usage guides say that after a married woman dies her spouse still has to be called “her husband”.
By Matt • 13 years ago

Why do people avoid using the word “woman”

Something I’ve never fully understood is why people dislike using the word woman so much in a number of contexts – some people seem to think that woman sounds impolite, but what is it in this day and age that is impolite about woman?  The term lady is misused so much nowadays (i.e. a “lady” was rude) and it seems that people use it because they don’t want to say woman yet they would often call a man a man in the same context.

One of the worst examples is a girl or young woman being condescendingly called “young lady” — like how Creigh Deeds addressed a reporter around 18 months ago.  A boy or man would simply be ...

Something I’ve never fully understood is why people dislike using the word woman so much in a number of contexts – some people seem to think that woman sounds impolite, but what is it in this day ...