Gender gap in our society Language is a very powerful element. There are words in the English language that are inherently biased against women. Language is organized so that men are identified with glorified and exalted positions, and women are identified with more service-oriented positions in which men dominate them. Even in pairs of words the bias is evident. In the English language, the masculine form of a word is almost always placed before the feminine form. Think about the following phrases: Mr. and Mrs., He and She, Boys and Girls, Brothers and Sisters. Word order is almost never reversed in the English language. This shows that the semantic use of many English words contributes to biases present in the English language. Media reports on the 2008 presidential election offer many excellent examples of gender bias. On January 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton participated in a question-and-answer session with 16 undecided voters, mostly women, at a cafe in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the day before the New Hampshire primary. Kate Snow reports: ...answered an unexpected question from a woman standing in the back. "My question is very personal, how do you do it?" asked Marianne Pernold Young, a freelance photographer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He mentioned Clinton's hair and appearance always seem perfectly coiffed. “How do you, how do you keep yourself upbeat and so wonderful?” (1) It has been repeatedly reported that Senator Clinton choked up and became emotional when answering this question. With tears in her eyes, Senator Clinton responded: It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country, but I don't want to see us fall backwards. You know, this is very personal to me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I understand what is happening and we need to reverse this. The prime example of gender bias is the fact that this voter asked about Senator Clinton's appearance. A male politician would never be questioned about his appearance or how well he keeps his hair combed. Mrs. Clinton's appearance has been reported, everything from her hair, to her clothes, to her cleavage.