The author – PhD Particia Niedzwiecki
She started her carrer as a playwright while doing research on gender and the human brain and its impact on our behavioural patterns since the 1980s. But she was also mandated by European and national bodies such as the EU, the Council of Europe or French and Belgian Ministeries to think about gender issues in society.
ABOUT HER
In the late 1980s, Patricia Niedzwiecki wrote a groundbreaking essay on ‘Sexism in language’.
As a guest member of the First Terminology Commission on Gender Issues set up by Yvette Roudy and chaired by Benoîte Groult in Paris from 1984 to 1986, she devoted part of her doctoral research to gender-based language differentiation at the Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot.
Her thesis and academic research focus on gendered language and verbal as well as non-verbal behavioural patterns.
She later contributed to the drafting of official documents on female vs. male language matters, including the 1988 Recommendation of the Belgian Ministry of Employment and Labor, the 1994 Decree by the French-speaking Community of Belgium, both of which were based on parts of her thesis. With Minister of State Magda Aelvoet, she has worked on a Flemish official proposal as well.
In the late 1990s, she published a major report for the European Commission entitled General Policy Note on the Feminization of Language. At the turning of our Millenium, she finalized her Instructions Against Sexism which she submitted to the Council of Europe.