Drawing on data gathered during fieldwork in an
Indo-Guyanese village (1994–96), this article shows
that the gender patterns for variable pronominal usage
are strikingly stable over time. In both this study and
one conducted by John Rickford more than twenty years ago,
women, compared with men, use more basilectal variants
in the category of 1sg. subject (mi vs. ai),
but fewer in the category of 3sg. objects (am
vs. shi/ii/it). Rather than explain this variation
as a “leveling out” (Rickford 1979), it is
here suggested that variants must be understood in terms
of their contribution to an unfolding interactional engagement.
The conclusion remarks on the continuing confusion among
sociolinguists regarding the analytical relevance of gender
as an external constraint on variation. A more developed
understanding of these issues depends on recognizing the
way in which language variation serves as an indirect and
constitutive index of gender.