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Gender differences are not based on biological attributes, but rather on socialized factors. Gender differences in the choice and frequency of language varieties are based on the different roles of men and women in society and the different amounts of power that each gender holds. Reference is therefore made in this study to social gender, not sex.

Gender has often been shown to be an important correlate of variety choice and frequency (see Milroy and Gordon 2003: 100-108). Gender differentiation is one of the most consistent findings of the last thirty years of sociolinguistic research across many languages. Women seem to be much more conscious of the stigmatized values conveyed by non-standard varieties. Women are expected to conform to social norms for their gender more than males, to act “properly.” Another reason is that the non-standard variety is often associated with masculinity, lending the non-standard variety covert prestige, which leads men to favor the use of non-standard over standard varieties (Trudgill 2000: 72-73).

For traditional dialectology in German-speaking areas, older women involved with agriculture were often preferred as subjects because of their lesser mobility than male

informants and therefore higher likelihood of only speaking dialect (Steinegger 1998: 204- 205). Older women in rural areas maintain the oldest, most conservative dialects, as they are less influenced than males by professional contact, military service, and contact with others outside the local community. In urban areas, females tend to speak less dialect and more of the urban colloquial variety, as females more likely to adopt new linguistic variants. At the same time, females tend to be more standard-oriented, and more likely to use a “prestigious and fashionable” standard variety (Mattheier 1980: 26).

A study for Vienna demonstrates that women are much more likely to use standard varieties in urban environments than men, because they are more conscious of the relative prestige associated with speech varieities (Wodak-Leodolter and Dressler 1978: 48). In particular, women in this study reported monitoring their speech more carefully than men when raising children (ibid.: 51). For all of Austria, Wiesinger (1989b:77) also found that females prefer Standard or colloquial German more than males. Males are more likely to speak dialect than females.

Malliga (1997:225) found that while males and females claim equal levels of dialect competence, the males find use of dialect to be more favorable (günstiger) in all situations than females. Females find dialect use in familial discussions to be favorable, while males found dialect use favorable in familial situations as well as with friends and colleagues. Females are more sensitive to the social prestige of the standard variety than males. Females have a lower estimation of dialect and a higher estimation of standard varieties than males.

The female speakers in Ammon’s (1979) study tended to speak dialect because it is the local norm in small towns in the areas of Franconia and Swabia that he examined. Studies in Bamberg (Bavaria) have demonstrated that boys tend to speak more dialect in school than

girls (Steiner 1957: 147). In urban German-language areas, females often are quicker to adopt the urban colloquial variety, and young boys tend to speak more dialect than young girls (Bister-Broosen 1998: 61). However in modern times the differences between males and females are diminishing (Mattheier 1980: 31).

In Austria specifically, females in the labor force use more standard forms than males in the same occupations, because the females strive for equality and wish to be seen as equally competent and capable as the males (Wiesinger 1989b: 77). Men speak more dialect than women at work and with friends (Mattheier 1980: 27-29). Men are more self-confident and can switch between dialect and colloquial varieties much more comfortably. Females indicate less acceptance of dialect across various situations, and they tend to switch less readily between varieties (Steinegger 1998: 230). However, the differences are far less between men and women in smaller communities than in larger communities. In small cities (10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants) 57.9% of males and 52.2% indicate that their preferred variety is dialect. 39.8% of males and 27.2% of females find dialect to be “good,” while 59.7% of males and 72.3% of females say it depends on the given situation (Steinegger 1998:220-221). Within the working class the gender differences are much less than in the middle and upper classes; women of the upper class are the least likely group to speak dialect (ibid.:286-287).

Women in German-speaking communities speak more dialect than men at home with the family, except between the ages of 25 and 40 (traditionally the child-bearing and child- raising years) because they wish to expose their young children to varieties closer to the standard variety in order to prepare them for school. The speech behavior of others towards children changes dramatically after children have moved beyond the elementary language acquisition stage, shifting from standard and standard-like varieties towards colloquial and

dialectal varieties (Steinegger 1998: 297). In Austria specifically, primarily in cities and to a lesser degree in rural areas, women tend to speak less dialect than men (Wiesinger 1997: 32). Steinegger (1998: 286) also points out that gender differences are smaller in smaller

communities than in larger urban areas.

Wodak-Leodolter and Dressler (1978) found that Viennese women speak less dialect and more standard variety than men, are more conscious of language, and adhere to prestige norms more than men. This discrepancy with Mattheier’s statement may be due to a difference between urban and rural areas (Clyne 1995: 102). In Weiss’s (1980:7) study of Ulrichsberg, Upper Austria, there was no significant effect of gender on choice of variety. Ulrichsberg, a market town (Marktgemeinde) with a rural character, is a much smaller community than Vienna of course.F6F

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F Males claimed to speak Standard German slightly more often than females.