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The repressive function of linguistic and discurdve elernents h3S
been highlighted in feminist critique. Feminists have demonstrated how these elements may lead to the repression of women and feminity as well as to the perpetuation of male dominance. They
can be considered as pioneers in their emphasis on the linguistic
construction of reality (including in caicegories such as "man" and "woman") and in their focus on the role of language in dominance
and power relations. Thus one of the TImin loci of their struggles is discourse and language both in the na;rrow sense and the broader
sense as semantic and semiotic systems. Women's movement was engaged at this level of struggle in a non - systematic way during its first wave from 1840's to 1920's, It 'was, however, in the second
wave, i.e. during the 1960's and 1970's that feminism, like other
"new" social movements, turned toward symbolic struggles. This type of struggle has become a (if not the) major arena of feminist activism during the last two decades of the third wave of women's movement. This article is an attempt to analyse this aspect IOf feminist theory and practice.