'Françaises, Français': Why the French language need not be so sexist

[MineralMan]

7. Yes, but the gendered nature of languages has an unconscious impact.

English also has three genders, really. So does Spanish, Russian, and many other languages.


In English, for example, "he" or "she" can often be replaced with "one." The same applies in French, with "on". On the other hand, using the ungendered pronoun, "it," will generate blowback if you use "it" to refer to a person. While it sounds stilted, to some degree, it is an accurate way to replace those two gendered pronouns.

We are learning to replace gendered nouns, like stewardess, with neutral nouns, like flight attendant. The process, however, is slow. People are slow to change "waitress" or "waiter" to "server" and "mailman" to "carrier." The use of language is a habitual thing. We speak (and write) almost unconsciously, using the language we learned as children. Changing those things comes with great difficulty.