HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A gender-specific job title is a name of a job that also specifies or implies the gender of the person performing that job. For example, in English, the job title ''stewardess'' implies that the person is female. A gender-neutral job title, on the other hand, is one that does not specify or imply gender, such as ''firefighter'' or ''lawyer''. In some cases it may be debatable whether a title is gender-specific; for example, ''chairman'' appears to denote a male (because of the ending ''-man''), but the title is also applied sometimes to women. Proponents of gender-neutral language generally advocate the use of gender-neutral job titles, particularly in contexts where the gender of the person in question is not known or not specified. For example, they prefer ''flight attendant'' to ''stewardess'' or ''steward'', and ''police officer'' to ''policeman'' or ''policewoman''. In some cases this may involve deprecating the use of certain specifically female titles (such as ''authoress''), thus encouraging the use of the corresponding unmarked form (such as ''author'') as a fully gender-neutral title. The above applies to gender neutrality in English and in some other languages without grammatical gender (where
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
is a feature of a language's grammar that requires every noun to be placed in one of several classes, often including feminine and masculine). In languages with grammatical gender, the situation is altered by the fact that nouns for people are often constrained to be inherently masculine or feminine, and the production of truly gender-neutral titles may not be possible. In such cases, proponents of gender-neutral language may instead focus on ensuring that feminine and masculine words exist for every job, and that they are treated with equal status.


Examples

The
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
''-man'' had the meanings "person" and "adult male" in
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
(see ''man''), but, even when used as a gender-neutral term to include women, it was understood to still mainly refer to males. Around the 20th century, the gender-neutral use of ''man'' and -''man'' declined. Thus job titles that include this suffix, such as ''fireman'', ''salesman'' and ''alderman'', generally imply that the holder is male. While some of these job titles have feminine variants (e.g. ''alderwoman''), others do not, because traditionally the positions in question were not occupied by women.Aarts, Bas and April M. S. McMahon
''The Handbook of English Linguistics''
Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006, , p. 737.
For most such titles, gender-neutral equivalents now also exist, such as ''police officer'' (for ''policeman'' or ''policewoman''), ''salesperson'' or ''sales representative'' (for ''salesman'' or ''saleswoman''), etc. However, some proposed gender-neutral terms have not attained such common usage (as with ''fisher'' as an alternative to ''fisherman''). Military ranks with the suffix ''-man'' normally remain unchanged when applied to females: for example, a woman serving in the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...
might be known as Craftsman Atkins. Examining the ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine corpus (texts from the 1920s to the 2000s), researcher Maria Bovin found: In the case of ''chairman'', gender-neutral alternatives (such as ''chair'' and ''chairperson'') exist, although in some contexts the word ''chairman'' is used even where it denotes (or could denote) a woman. For details, see ''
Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...
''. Feminine terms such as ''actress'', ''usherette'' and ''comedienne'' are
marked In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant defau ...
with respect to the masculine (''actor'', ''usher'', ''comedian'') both formally (i.e. something is added to the masculine form) and in the sense that only the masculine form can be used generically to describe a mixed-gender group of people. This means that the "masculine" form can in fact serve as a gender-neutral term (a solution often favored by proponents of gender-neutral language, who thus tend to deprecate or restrict usage of the specifically feminine forms). Some such feminine forms, such as ''poetess'' and ''authoress'', are now rarely used. Others, such as ''actress'', remain common, although increasing numbers of women are calling themselves ''actors'' rather than ''actresses'', especially in the live theatre. The
Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...
annually gives out awards for "Best Male Actor" and "Best Female Actor". The term '' waiter'' appears to retain masculine specificity (with ''waitress'' as the corresponding feminine term). Other gender-neutral terms have therefore been proposed, such as ''server'' (alternatives include ''waitron'', ''waitstaff'' or ''waitperson''), though these are rarely used outside North America. The term ''
midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; ...
'' looks superficially to be feminine (since it ends with ''-wife''), but it is used for either gender. The term comes from an
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
term meaning "with the woman". In an examination of "business-related titles" such as businessman and business people, "overall usage of these terms seems to have decreased since the 1960s" when examining ''Time'' magazine: When "looking specifically at the difference between the gender-marked titles and the gender-neutral ones, businessperson(s) and businesspeople, there has been an increase usage of the neutral businesspeople (if all spelling variations are included). Yet, this is not a large increase, and as it is used to refer to a group of people rather than an individual, its relevance may be questionable. Noticeable is the fact that businessperson is remarkably infrequent, and only appears in three decades. The term businesswoman may be increasing again between the 1980s and the 2000s, after a lower usage in the preceding fifty years. It has its highest frequency of usage in the 1920s." Origin of the word "master" are late
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
: "a man having control or authority; a teacher or tutor", from Latin ''magister'' (n.), a contrastive adjective ("he who is greater") meaning "chief, head, director, teacher", and the source of Old French ''maistre'', French ''maître'', Spanish and Italian ''maestro'', Portuguese ''mestre'', Dutch ''meester'', German ''Meister''. "Garner's Usage Tip of the Day" states, in regards to "layman; layperson; lay person", that Layman' is the most common among these terms and is commonly regarded as unexceptionable — in reference to members of both sexes, of course."


Debate

A change to gender-neutral job titles can be controversial. This debate reflects the debate over gender-neutral language in general. The case for switching to gender-neutral job titles usually makes an
ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
argument, that gender-specific job titles at some level promote
sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
in the workplace. For example, fire chiefs have argued that when the public uses the term "fireman" instead of "
firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
", it reinforces the popular image that firefighting is only a job for men, and thus makes it difficult for them to recruit women. Studies found that people assume maleness when they read job titles with ''-man'', and they found that women were less likely to apply to jobs that used ''-man'' in their application. During the 19th century, attempts to overlay
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
rules onto English required the use of feminine endings in nouns ending with -ess. This produced words like ''doctress'' and ''professoress'' and even ''lawyeress'', all of which have fallen out of use; though ''waitress'', ''stewardess'', and ''actress'' are in modern use. Use of the term ''chairman'' remains widespread in predominantly male sectors of society, but ''chairperson'' or ''chair'' is now widespread in society in general, at least in the US, Canada and increasingly in the UK. For example, the boards of most
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
companies in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
are presided over by a "chairman" and also the overwhelming majority of the (
FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
) companies in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
have a "chairman", while committees in the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
are presided over by a "chair", as of 2009. Since most of these are, however, men, a more correct description of the current language situation needs to consider use in organisations whose chairperson is a woman. Less than half of the members of the ''
American Heritage Dictionary American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
'''s usage panel accept the use of the word ''chairman'' in describing a woman. Some usage guides, such as ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'', advocate gender-neutral language in circumstances where all sexes are meant to be included. For instance, a business might advertise that it is looking for a new ''chair'' or ''chairperson'' rather than ''chairman''. Gender-neutral language discourages ''chairman'', on the grounds that some readers would assume women and those of other genders are implicitly excluded from responding to an advertisement using this word. ''Feminist Philosophy of Language'', a guide on sexism in language and
feminist language reform Feminist language reform or feminist language planning refers to the effort, often of political and grassroots movements, to change how language is used to gender people, activities and ideas on an individual and societal level. This initiative h ...
, also discourages the usage of ''man'' and ''-man'' as gender-neutral because it has male bias and erases women under a masculine word. They also discourage titles like "lady doctor" because it makes men the default and implies that the ability and competence of workers, in this case a doctor, are dependent on their sex.


Generally accepted writing conventions

Proponents of gender-neutral job titles believe that such titles should be used, especially when referring to hypothetical persons. For example, ''firefighter'' instead of ''fireman''; ''mail carrier'', ''letter carrier'', or ''post worker'' rather than ''mailman''; ''flight attendant'' instead of ''steward'' or ''stewardess''; ''bartender'' instead of ''barman'' or ''barmaid''. In the rare case where no useful gender-neutral alternative is available, they believe both male and female terms should be used. Proponents of gender-neutral language advocate the use of a neuter form when/where appropriate. For example, a company may seek to fill a vacancy and hire a new ''chairperson''. Since a gendered individual doesn't currently hold the position, its title reverts to a neuter form. Once that position is filled, many advocates believe gender can be attached to the title as appropriate (chair''man'' or chair''woman''). Sometimes this formulation can lead to inconsistent gender-specific usage, in which women become ''chairpersons'' but men remain ''chairmen''. Some women opt to use the word ''chairman'' in preference to ''chairwoman'', subject to the
style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
''Madam'' or ''Mister'' prefixing the title, which they perceive to be gender-neutral by itself. Particularly in
academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, the word
Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...
is often used to designate the person chosen to oversee the
agenda Agenda may refer to: Information management * Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list * Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group * Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal information manager * Pers ...
at meetings of an
organized group A formal organization is an organization with a fixed set of rules of intra-organization procedures and structures. As such, it is usually set out in writing, with a language of rules that ostensibly leave little discretion for interpretation. So ...
. The principle of gender-neutral language dictates that job titles that add suffixes to make them feminine should be avoided. For example, "usher", not "usherette"; "comedian", not "comedienne". Some of these are almost entirely obsolete now, such as sculptress,
poetess A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writ ...
, and aviatrix. If gender is relevant, the words ''woman'' or ''female'' should be used instead of "lady" ("my grandmother was the first female doctor in the province"), except if the masculine is "lord" (as in "landlady"). In the case of
landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...
or landlady, it may be preferable to find an equivalent title with the same meaning, such as proprietor or lessor. However, when a female is in the office of " the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod", it is changed to "the Lady Usher of the Black Rod" or simply "Usher of the Black Rod", as in Canada. Advisors on non-sexist usage deprecate terms such as "male nurse", "female doctor", "male model", or "female judge" because such terms are often used when the gender and sex is irrelevant. These advisors say that the statement of exception reinforces harmful assumptions about the gender of people in those professions.


Languages other than English

When words have a
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
associated with them, in many languages, they may impose morphological requirements to maintain sentence agreement. That is, there is a non-political content to the word changes, or
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
. Nevertheless, gender-identification word endings are sometimes dropped, something that happened often in the former
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, for example."Review of: Mary Fulbrook, ''The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker''"
''H-Net'', New Haven:
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...
, 2005. .
Sometimes an entirely new or etymologically unrelated word is coined. For example, when men in France wanted to become
midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
, which up until then was an exclusively female occupation, they chose not to adapt the existing term ('wise woman'), and instead coined .


See also

*
Epicene Epicenity is the lack of gender distinction, often reducing the emphasis on the masculine to allow the feminine. It includes androgyny – having both masculine and feminine characteristics. The adjective ''gender-neutral'' may describe epicenit ...
*
Gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...
*
Gender-neutral language Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids bias towards a particular sex or gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, formation of phrases in a c ...
*
Gender neutrality in English Gender-neutral language is language that minimizes assumptions about the social gender or biological sex of people referred to in speech or writing. In contrast to most other Indo-European languages, English does not retain grammatical gender and ...
*
Third-person pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...


References


External links


Gender-Unmarked and Gender-Marked Job Title Usage
(DOC file) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gender-Specific Job Title Job titles Gendered occupations