Publications

Publication details [#1901]

Archer, Maureen and Ronnie Cohen. 1997. Sports metaphors, women, and legal discourse. Qualitative Health Research 20 (2) : 2–7. 6 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Until recently, the legal profession, like business and government, has been the exclusive domain of men. These judges, lawyers, and jurors shaped the linguistic features of the law according to the world they understood. Because sports have been, and continue to be, a dominant component of the male world, sports metaphors permeate men's language. For example, terms such as out in left field, Sunday punch, Monday morning quarterback, and end run are used metaphorically throughout conversations by those who know baseball, boxing, and football. Our research shows that U.S. judges and lawyers have used these and many other sports metaphors for at least the past hundred years. Women have been steadily entering the masculine playing field of law. In 1979, less than 10% of U.S. law students were women; in 1990, the number was up to 42.7% (Nelson 398). (From the Introduction)