Mercedes Bengoechea Bartolomé (

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, December 29, 1952) is a Spanish

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

sociolinguist Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...

, professor of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and a proponent for the defense of the use of

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 ...

from an academic foundation. She has had a long career as an advisor to various entities, including the

Institute of Women The Institute of Women (''Instituto de las Mujeres'', formerly ''Instituto de la Mujer'') is a Spanish List of agencies in Spain, autonomous agency attached to the Ministry of Equality (Spain), Ministry of Equality. ''NB As of October 2021 the En ...

and the Instituto RTVE (IORTV). Since 1994, Bengoechea has been a member of the Comisión Asesora sobre Lenguaje del Instituto de la Mujer (Language Advisory Committee of the Institute of Women) (NOMBRA). She has been vocal at the Commission for the Modernization of Legal Language of the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

, as well as coordinator of the first Annual Report of the National Observatory on Gender Violence. She defends the need to implement a non-sexist use of language, in the face of resistance from institutions such as the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

(RAE). She has received various awards for her research and innovative work within her specialty.

Biography

She graduated in

Modern Languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such a ...

from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

(1978), and received her Ph.D. in 1991. She is a professor of sociolinguistics in the area of English Philology, attached to the Department of Modern Philology at the

University of Alcalá The University of Alcalá ( es, Universidad de Alcalá) is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Madrid in Spain and also the third-largest city of the region. It was founded in 1293 as a ...

, of whose Faculty of Philosophy and Letters she was dean between 2003 and 2008. Since 1994, Bengoechea has been a member of NOMBRA. Between 2005 and 2008, she was a member of the Expert Commission on Language and Childhood of the Instituto RTVE. In 2007, she was in charge of coordinating the first annual report of the National Observatory on

Gender Violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply as ...

. Between 2010 and 2011, she was a member of the Commission for the Modernization of Legal Language of the Ministry of Justice, a period in which she was awarded the First Class Distinguished Cross of the

Order of Saint Raymond of Peñafort The Order of the Cross of St. Raymond of Peñafort ( es, Orden de la Cruz de San Raimundo de Peñafort) is a Spanish civil order of merit. Established 23 January 1944, the five classes recognize service to and contributions toward the developmen ...

, granted by this Ministry (June 24, 2011). Throughout her career she has also received different distinctions, including the María Isidra de Guzmán Research Award for her book ''

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...

'' (1993), the Dones Progressistes Award, granted by the Federation of Progressist Women of the Valencian Community for her research work within the NOMBRA group of the Women's Institute on gender and language (2006). L'Associació de Dones Periodistes de Catalunya granted her work carried out jointly with José Simón, the Prize for Innovation in Non-Sexist Communication (Prize for Innovation in Non-Sexist Communication) in 2008.

Awards

* 1993, María Isidra de Guzmán Research Award for her book ''Adrienne Rich''. * 2006, Dones Progressistes Award, awarded by the Federation of Progressist Women of the Valencian Community for her research in Language and Gender. * 2008, Award for Innovation in Non-Sexist Communication from the Association of Female Journalists of Catalonia for ''Nombra.en.red'' written and developed by Mercedes Bengoechea and José Simón

Selected works

Books

* (2015) ''Lengua y género.'' Madrid. Síntesis. * (2009) ''Efectos de las políticas lingüistas anti-sexistas y feminización del lenguaje''.

: Instituto de la Mujer. * (2007) Coordinación'': Informe anual del Observatorio Estatal de Violencia sobre la Mujer» y Anexo: « Sistema de Indicadores y Variables sobre Violencia de Género sobre el que construir la base de datos del Observatorio Estatal de Violencia sobre la Mujer''. Madrid: Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social. ISBN: NIPO: 201 07 224 1 * (1998) Obra colectiva: ''Lo femenino y lo masculino en el Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.'' Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. Instituto de la Mujer. 1998.

Book chapters

* (2014) "Gentyll online glossaries: Professional titles of women and men in a series of fields of activity". ''Investigating Lexis: Vocabulary Teaching, ESP, Lexicography and Lexical Innovation'' ():

Cambridge Scholars Publishing Cambridge Scholars Publishing (CSP) is an academic book publisher based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is not affiliated with the University of Cambridge or Cambridge University Press. The company publishes in health science, life scienc ...

. pp. 123-132. * (2014) "Las propuestas de la Comisión de Modernización del Lenguaje Jurídico: apuesta de democratización en la senda del Plain English Movement". ''Lingüística Forense: La Lingüística en el ámbito legal y policial'' (Editorial Euphonia) () Madrid. pp. 317-339. * (2014) "Neologismos, políticas lingüísticas feministas y tradición en los glosarios en línea Gentyll en el ámbito del deporte". ''La Néologie en la langue de spécialité. Détection, Implantation et Circulation des Nouveaux Termes'' ()

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

: CRTT (Centre de Recherche en Terminologie et Traduction), Presses Universitaires de Lyon. pp. 203-228. * (2013) "El feminismo ante la teoría y la práctica de la traducción". ''Mujeres, Ciencia y Academia'' ()

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

University of Málaga The University of Málaga (UMA, ''Universidad de Málaga'') is a public university ranked 23 among all Spanish universities and 683 in the world. It was established in 1972 and has, as of 2016, 30,203 Bachelor students and 2576 on a Master's pr ...

. pp. 55-82. * Y SIMÓN, José (2012) "El paisaje publicitario de 2007 tras veinte años de políticas lingüísticas anti-sexistas". ''Intersexion: languages romanes, langues et genres'' ()

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

: Lincom Europa. pp. 83-96. * (2010) "Gender identity in words for professional titles in textbooks". ''Gender perspectives on vocabulary in foreign/second language education'' ()

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

. pp. 188-211. * (2010) "Si las miradas matasen... La perturbadora mirada del deseo en la poesía romántica". ''El sustrato cultural de la violencia de género'' () Madrid: Editorial Síntesis. pp. 71-115. * (2010) "(In)fidelidad al proyecto de A room of one's own en la asignación de sexo en las traducciones a español". ''Identita i genere in ambito ispanico'' ()

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

FrancoAngeli FrancoAngeli is one of the largest Italian publishing houses specialized in books and journals for university and post-university studies, as well as for professionals. Based in Milan and founded in 1955, it has one of the largest Italian catalog ...

. pp. 33-82 * (2011) “El proceso de nombrar el mundo en femenino y algunos efectos secundarios no buscados”. ''La igualdad: nuevas perspectivas de género en educación, lingüística y filosofía''. Málaga: Centro de Ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga (CEDMA), 2011, pp. 149-182. (). * (2009) "Sexismo (y economía lingüística) en el lenguaje de las noticias". ''Lengua y televisión'' () Madrid: Fragua de Publicaciones. pp. 32-62. * (2009) "El español no sexista en la redacción legislativa". ''Legislar Mejor'' () Madrid: Ministerio de Justicia. pp. 159-184. * (2009) "Spain and Portugal". ''Sociolinguistics around the world: A handbook'' ()

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. pp. 341-358. * (2008) "Textualizacion de identidad genérica homogeneizada". ''Making Waves'' ()

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 71-91. * (2006) "El lenguaje y la forma textual de representación". ''Nuevos retos y perspectivas de investigación en la comunicación''. (): C.A. UNED. Biblioteca (

National University of Distance Education The National Distance Education University, known in Spanish as ''Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia'' (UNED), is a public research university of national scope. The university was founded in 1972 under the Ministry of Universities. ...

). pp. 299-318. * (2006) "La subordinación simbólica como fuente de la violencia: El lenguaje como vehículo de discriminación.". II Congreso sobre Violencia Doméstica y de Género. (): Madrid:

Consejo General del Poder Judicial The General Council of the Judiciary ( es, Consejo General del Poder Judicial, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Spanish Judiciary, Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, an ...

. pp. 77-90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengoechea, Mercedes 1952 births Living people People from Madrid Sociolinguists Spanish philologists Spanish feminist writers Academic staff of the University of Alcalá Complutense University of Madrid alumni Gender studies academics 21st-century non-fiction writers 21st-century Spanish women writers