Gender neutral language in French
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Nowadays, French knows only two genders: feminine and masculine. Activists have started seeking solutions to degender the language as much as possible and, therefore, make it more inclusive. These solutions entail neologisms as well as non neologisms. Here we present the still ongoing quest for (grammatical) gender inclusivity in the French language.
Non neologisms
Refeminization
Prior to the 17th century, French, like Italian, Spanish, and other Romance languages, utilized feminine inflections to distinguish female professionals. However, for a range of reasons — both societal, such as misogyny,[1][2] and linguistic[3], as French was being standardized and dialect speakers were expected to learn French — grammarians ensured that these feminine designations were effectively removed from the language.[1]
Today, many people refer to the contemporary introduction of feminine designations as 'feminization,' believing that these occupational titles are newly coined terms. However, this is not the case, as they are being revived from an earlier iteration of the French language, making 'refeminization'[4] a more accurate term.
Even though it seems paradoxical, refeminization is part of a movement to degender the French language, as studies in various languages have demonstrated that the generic masculine, despite being considered gender-neutral by French prescriptive grammar,[5] is not actually cognitively neutral.[6][7] By incorporating the feminine form of a word, speakers acknowledge the presence of individuals of more genders than just one.
| Masculine | Feminine by the Académie | Refeminized |
|---|---|---|
| un auteur | une auteur(e) | une autrice |
| un professeur | une professeur(e) | une professeuse |
| un peintre | une peintre | une peintresse |
| un chirurgien | une femme chirurgien | une chirurgienne |
Doublets
For example, « Nous prions les étudiantes et (les)