Mary Ellen Capek, Executive Director of the National Council for Research on Women, asks “what do the words we use really mean or say about women?” Capek helped develop and edit the Women’s Thesaurus (1987), an index of language about women. She emphasizes the importance of tentativeness and questioning when it comes to language. She calls on academics, writers, and experts to “lift up words like rocks and see what’s there.” She exemplifies the implications of phrases like “unwed mothers” and “untraditional employment” which frame the lives and experiences of women only in their relation to men. Capek concludes her talk by reading the 1985 short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, She Unnames Them. The lecture is followed with questions from the audience.
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