Robin Lakoff

Maybe at the time when this story was written, women seemed to be the
communicative cripples and unassertive creatures, as they were not allowed to talk
about a lot of things, but the times changed. Today women have the same rights as
men and can freely talk on the topics, which years ago seemed to be forbidden for
them. But among some Ukrainian men, there is still a stereotype that women can't
think clearly and unable to take part in serious discussions and solve problems. There
is even a proverb: «Listen to a woman and do it vice versa».
Relying on my experience, I may say that there is a women's language in
Ukraine. For example in such a field, as cosmetics women are as knowledgeable and
know so many notions, shades, colors as not a lot of men can be. But talking about
such word as «lady» I can say that Ukrainians don't give this word a negative
connotation and it is not used to show the flippancy and carelessness of women.
Indeed, among a lot of my friends, this word is used to define a woman or girl, who
behaves decently.
To my mind language is a very important indicator of knowledge of a person.
It shows their status, education, origin, etc. We can't imagine that the Queen or the
president would use vulgarisms in their everyday communication. In our society,
some people, especially the young generation became so flexible that they manage to
use different types of language depending on a situation. For example, when they are
at the university or work, they use the high flown speech, but if they are at home or
some trivial meetings with friends, they tend to use low flown speech. I do not think
that such flexibility has a good impact on a person's development.