Analyzing the Feminine Prose Style in Press Writings of Female Journalists in the Constitutional Era Case Studies of Danesh and Shokoufeh

Feminist criticism is concerned with women's issues and the ideas regarding women in a text. As an approach to the differences between speech and texts of men and women, female writing is a valuable theory in feminist literary criticism. By drawing on a descriptive and analytical methodology, the present study analyzes the language and content of two women's journals in the Constitutional era, i.e., Danesh (“knowledge”) and Shokoufeh (“bloom”), using a "feminine writing" feminist approach and based on the perspectives of linguists such as Mills and Lakoff. Linguistic and content analysis of these magazines suggest that although the prose of female journalists in the earliest women's journals is void of heavy feminist connotations, the syntax contains many components of feminine writing style, such as high frequency of vague words, swearing on divine authority, use of intensifiers and adverbs expressing doubts, feminine emotional phrases in vocabulary, utilizing short sentences, relative and independent clauses, use of unfinished sentences, and questions. Thematically, too, female journalists discussed subjects different from those reflected in men's journals, like the imperative of female literacy, female health care, and hygiene, respecting their choice of spouse, revising men's conduct in interacting with them in the household and community, and comparing the conditions of Iranian women with women in advanced countries, to advance their social and individual demands.