Gender-specific Job Title - Generally Accepted Writing Conventions

Generally Accepted Writing Conventions

Proponents of gender-neutral job titles believe they 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 genders 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, advocates believe gender can be attached to the title as appropriate (chairman or chairwoman).

Sometimes this formulation can lead to hyper-correcting 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 Madam or Mister prefixing the title, which they perceive to be gender-neutral by itself. Particularly in academia, the word Chair is often used to describe the person occupying the chair.

Proponents believe 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, and aviatrix. If gender is relevant, they believe that 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"). However, when a female is in the office of "the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod," it was changed to "the Usher of the Black Rod" in Canada.

Terms such as "male nurse," "male model," or "female judge" are often used when the gender is irrelevant. Many advisors on non-sexist usage therefore deprecate them, saying that the statement of exception indicates that a worker of that gender is somehow an ersatz member of that profession. (Woody Allen jokes that his sister was the first woman to be a male nurse in New York.)