Female researchers, authors and firefighters in France could soon be known as chercheuses, autrices and sapeuses-pompières after the conservative Académie Française abandoned years of opposition to the feminisation of job titles.
The Immortals, as the 36 guardians of the French language are known, said they saw “no obstacle in principle” to the change, and were happy to envisage “all developments in the language aimed at recognising the place women have in society today”.
Most job titles in French are masculine by default, meaning, for example, that in French la presidente refers not to the female leader of a country, but to the female partner of a head of state. The few exceptions to this rule are in mainly gender-stereotypical jobs, such as infirmière (nurse) or nourrice (childminder).
But to widespread surprise, the academy this week voted by an overwhelming majority to approve a report compiled by three of its five female members that recommended ending its centuries-old official ban on feminising the names of professions and trades.
“The académie has shown a marvellous spirit of openness,” said Dominique Bona, one of the report’s authors. “It has shown it is sensitive to the fact that women are thinking about the definition of their jobs. It will now tolerate feminisations that have long been banned.”
Members of the academy, which was established in 1635 under Louis XIII, last objected to the feminisation of job titles in 2014, rendering gramatically incorrect the title that the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, insisted on being called, Madame la Maire (as opposed to the authorised Madame le Maire).
This week’s report marked a minor revolution in the academy’s traditionally prescriptive approach. There would, it said, be no attempt to set fixed rules on how titles should be feminised, this being an “insurmountable task”. Instead, the academy was prepared to allow usage to evolve organically.
Many titles could be easily feminised, the report noted, simply by adding a silent “e”. Others were more problematic: adding an “e” to médecin (doctor) risked confusion with médecine (the science of medicine).
And some will doubtless prove a downright headache: should a female boss (chef), for example, be a chèfe, a cheffesse, a cheftaine or even a chève? Years of thoroughly agreeable debate await.
