Gender-Fair Language: Its Integration in Dictionary Writing
Gender-fair language (GFL) aims at reducing gender stereotyping and discrimination. Two principal strategies have been employed to make languages gender fair and to treat women and men symmetrically: neutralization and feminization. It is a language that avoids bias towards a particular sex or social gender. In English, this includes the use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, the formation of phrases in a coequal manner, and discontinuing the blanket use of male terms.
For example, the practice of using he and man as generic terms poses a common problem. Rather than presenting a general picture of reality, he and man used generically can mislead your audience. Research by Wendy Martyna has shown that the average reader's tendency is to imagine a male when reading he or man, even if the rest of the passage is gender-neutral. Therefore, you cannot be sure that your reader will see the woman on the job if you refer to every technician as he, or that your reader will see the woman in the history of man. On the other hand, replacing every he with he or she attracts even more attention to gender and defeats your purpose. This predicament merits special attention in scientific and technical writing, where any ambiguity is unacceptable.
Below are some examples of how to implement gender fairness in writing:
Original: The driver should take his completed registration form to the clerk's window and pay his license fee.
Gender-fair: You should take your completed registration form to the clerk's window and pay your license fee.
Original: Each supervisor will be at his workstation by 8 a.m.
Gender-fair: Each supervisor will be at his or her workstation by 8 a.m.
Original: The governor signed the workmen's compensation bill.
Gender-fair: The governor signed the workers' compensation bill.
Other than this, the use of the pronoun "they" in modern times has caused a debate on gender fairness. Critics of the change have argued that “they” as both singular and plural can be confusing and muddy a sentence’s syntax. Shakespeare and Jane Austen, among many other famed English writers, didn’t think so. They used singular “they” and “their,” as was the standard in English until Victorian-era grammarians shifted course and imposed “he” above all.
Arabic is another grammatically gendered language, with each verb, noun, and adjective always assigned either a male or female case. The male is the default in plurals, even if it’s just one male in an otherwise female group. Modern Standard Arabic, based on Koranic classical Arabic, additionally has a dual option for nouns and verbs that don’t imply a specific gender. Some people, therefore, use the dual of they and you — “huma” (هما) and “intuma” (انتما) — as a gender-neutral alternative. Colloquial Arabic spoken today has largely done away with the dual, so this form can sound very formal to those, not in the know. Others play around with the language in different ways, such as interchanging masculine and feminine pronouns or a speaker choosing to subvert the male case’s patriarchal dominance and default to the female form. Arabic has many dialects, each with its own distinct grammar constructions and words, so different communities have developed their own colloquial codes. In some Tunisian dialects, for example, it’s already common to use the feminine pronoun for everyone.
Given its key role in shaping cultural and social attitudes, adopting gender-fair language is a powerful way to promote gender equality and fight gender bias. Formalizing the practice with dictionary writing is a big leap towards the acceptance of gender equality in the modern era. As Nelson Mandela once said, "Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all kinds of oppression."
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