Time, Language, and Gender

and a Journal Prompt!

In our culture, time isn’t just something we move through—it’s something that moves through us, differently, depending on gender. While men are framed as agents who use time, women are more often framed as subjects used up by it.

I’m so dramatic! But – consider the metaphors you already know by heart and probably use without thinking:

 Masculine Time                                                                    Feminine Time

Time is money.                                                                        Time is a thief.

He made good time.                                                               She's running out of time.

His time has come.                                                                Her time has passed.

He’s ahead of schedule.                                                         She delayed too long.

This is his prime.                                                                    She's past her prime.

He’s building his future.                                                        Her future is closing in.

Now, of course I’ve coded these phrases as masc/fem, but perhaps you already filled in these examples with familiar situations. Like anything gendered, this is a fluid exercise, but one worth considering in terms of cultural context (and we know that to move the needle AWAY from the dominant culture, we have to pick it apart). Ultimately, these phrases are metaphors that encode how we think, or have been taught to think, about worth, progress, and potential. Masculine time aligns with expansion, accumulation, foresight. Feminine time aligns with reduction, urgency, and decline. As a single mom in my 40s, I feel time slipping through my fingers all the time (yet another metaphor!). It’s probably why I’m writing a book about a version of time travel through the lens of motherhood – it’s the idea of relativity I can’t get a grasp on. And with 10 years between my kids, my motherhood timeline is starting over but I’m a decade older. Somehow time has stopped for me in terms of motherhood, but my body has definitely aged, and the possibilities for “starting over” as a woman look a bit different than for a man.

But wait: there’s data.

· Google Books Ngram Viewer (have you all used this tool? fascinating!) analysis reveals that phrases like "his prime" and "ahead of his time" appear far more frequently in male-dominated biographies, while "biological clock" and "past her prime" peak in texts about women.

· A 2011 study found that people rated women described with metaphors of expiration ("past her prime") as less competent and valuable than men described with equivalent language.

· A 2014 content analysis of U.S. magazines showed that male aging was associated with distinction and success, while female aging was linked with decline, loss, and invisibility.

· In fertility and medical literature, female bodies are described with ticking clocks, limited windows, and rapidly diminishing chances. Male fertility is framed in terms of potency and longevity.

Quick break to discuss Time Metaphors:

Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky has shown that the metaphors we use shape the very way we think. In one study, she found that speakers of different languages imagine time differently based on whether their language structures it as horizontal or vertical. English speakers, for example, imagine the future as in front of them, and time as a line you move along.

●English (and many Western languages): Time as a Horizontal Line

Metaphor: Time moves front to back

Common phrases:

“I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

“That’s all behind me now.”

“We’re moving ahead of schedule.”

Mental model: The future is in front, the past is behind. Time is a road or track you move along. Boroditsky found that English speakers consistently gesture forward when discussing the future and backward when referencing the past.

●Mandarin Chinese: Time as Vertical

Metaphor: Time moves up and down

Mental model: The past is up, and the future is down.

In experiments, Mandarin speakers were quicker to respond to vertical spatial cues when answering time-related questions, showing that their mental timeline is oriented vertically, not horizontally.

●Aymara (Andes region, South America): Past is in Front, Future Behind

Metaphor: You see the past, but the future is invisible

Mental model: The known is in front (past), the unknown is behind (future)

Implication: Knowledge and visibility are prioritized over the idea of linear progress. Boroditsky notes this as an example of how epistemology shapes time metaphors—an inversion of Western assumptions.

●Kuuk Thaayorre (Aboriginal language, Australia): Time as Geographically Anchored

Metaphor: Time moves from east to west, tied to the path of the sun

Mental model: Speakers orient time according to cardinal directions, not ego-centric frames

Experiment result: When asked to arrange photo sequences (e.g., someone aging), Kuuk Thaayorre speakers laid them out from east to west, regardless of where they were sitting. This shows that spatial metaphors for time are deeply grounded in environmental and cultural context, not universal cognition.

●Greek vs. Spanish vs. English: Duration and Event Boundaries

Study finding: Speakers of different languages conceptualize duration differently based on how their language encodes aspect.

Greek and Spanish: Emphasize ongoing processes.

English: Emphasizes completed actions (“She wrote the book” vs. “She was writing the book”).

This influences how speakers of each language estimate how long events take or whether they imagine the event as having a clear end.

Therefore, time is conceptualized through the body, vision, movement, landscape, and social values. Different languages encode different kinds of agency, temporality, and expectation—many of which intersect with gender, culture, and power.

Lakoff and Johnson, in Metaphors We Live By, break down only the English language, but it’s equally fascinating (though nothing will compare to Boroditsky’s dress — I mean come one! Gorgeous). The first one is similar to Boroditsky’s observations:

●TIME IS A PATH / WE ARE MOVERS THROUGH TIME

Here, time is a landscape, and we are moving forward through it.

· “We’re looking ahead to the new year.”

· “She left the past behind her.”

· “He’s coming up on retirement.”

Conceptual structure: We move. Time is the space we cross.

Implication: This metaphor emphasizes progress, agency, and goals—it’s deeply tied to capitalist and productivity-driven cultures. Time becomes a road to success, or failure.

●TIME IS A MOVING OBJECT

This is the metaphor where time moves past us, and we are stationary.

· “The deadline is approaching.”

· “Winter is coming.”

· “The time for action has passed.”

Conceptual structure: We are fixed. Time is an object (or a train, or a wave) moving toward and away from us.

Implication: Time is external, unstoppable, and something that happens to us. This metaphor reinforces a passive orientation—we must “brace” or “wait” for time’s movement.

●TIME IS A RESOURCE

Here, time is something you spend, waste, save, or invest.

· “Don’t waste my time.”

· “You’re running out of time.”

· “Is it worth your time?”

Conceptual structure: Time = money. It’s quantifiable, limited, and transactional.

Implication: This metaphor promotes efficiency culture and chrononormativity (Freeman)—time becomes a moralized commodity. It often frames people (especially women) as failing if they don’t use time “well.”

Back to Time and How it’s Been Gendered:

When time is tied to masculine-coded ideas like "productivity," "conquest," and "milestones," it favors those already socialized for that kind of forward motion. Women, whose lives are more often described in terms of cycles (menstruation, motherhood, menopause), are assigned to what Julia Kristeva calls "monumental time": cyclical, repetitive, domestic.

These metaphors aren't neutral. They shape policy. They shape perception. And they shape the stories we tell ourselves about who we get to become. And when.

Rethinking Time

English Professor (at my alma mater!) Elizabeth Freeman coined the term chrononormativity to describe the disciplining force of time: the way life is expected to follow a productive, linear path—and how failure to do so is seen as a moral lapse. This disproportionately affects women, whose timelines are constantly judged: too early, too late, not yet, too old.

So what happens if we speak/create a new time? One that doesn’t frame women as wasting away, but as inventing timelines that resist external or time-based control?

What if "waiting" isn’t passivity, but patience?
What if "past your prime" is a capitalist myth, or a trad wife fantasy?
What if your time isn’t running out—what’s an alternative to running out? Abundance? Overflowing?

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Journal Prompt: Another type of time travel

Choose one time-based metaphor you’ve internalized (e.g. “I’m behind,” “I missed my window,” “It’s too late for me”).

I, of course, will use: time is slipping between my fingers.

Now rewrite it.

· What does this metaphor cost you—emotionally, creatively, spiritually?

· Who gave it to you? What in society caused you to internalize this metaphor?

· Who benefits from you believing time is slipping through my fingers (fill in the blank with your own)

· What would it feel like to replace it with a new one rooted in expansion, not expiration?

Write the new metaphor in your own words. Repeat it until it sticks. Is there a way to use this new metaphor to rewrite your future? Or just in a conversation, to plant the seed?

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Further Reading

· Lera Boroditsky, "How Language Shapes Thought"

· Elizabeth Freeman, Time Binds

· Julia Kristeva, "Women’s Time"

· Lakoff & Johnson, Metaphors We Live By

· Emily Martin, The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction