Power and gender in humanitarian discourse

Abstract

This paper is a follow up to a 2015 pilot analysis of means employed by good-will ambassadors when delivering humanitarian speeches. The pilot study identified the existence of significant differences between male and female speech communities regarding their respective rhetoric and linguistic strategies. While aiming to do good, report on injustice, raise awareness, prevent suffering or call for aid, speakers were observed in the following criteria: status, morality, evidence, action, and power. Using the statistical data processing software SPSS Statistics, significant differences between male and female speakers were detected in typically-male strategies, namely status and evidence, which means that strategies typically associated with male speakers are also adopted by female ambassadors. This paper further analyses one of the criteria power and how its features are applied by each gender.