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GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE - European Parliament

GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGEin theEuropean Parliament2 FOREWORDIn 2008, the European Parliament was one of the first international organisations toadopt multilingual guidelines on GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE . I am pleased that, sincethen, many other institutions and organisations have adopted similar guidance. Onthe occasion of the 10 year anniversary of the guidelines, and in order to reflectlinguistic and cultural developments, the High-Level Group on gender Equality andDiversity requested Parliament s services to update the GENDER-NEUTRAL languageguidelines, whichprovide practical advice in all official languages on the use ofgender-fair and inclusive behalf of the High-Level Group, I very much welcome this updated edition of thegender- neutral LANGUAGE guidelines which is the fruit of a close collaboration amongthe relevant linguistic and administrative European Parliament remains as committed as ever to the use of gender -neutrallanguage in its written and spoken communications and I now invite the relevantservices to raiseawareness of the updated guidelines and the importance of theiruse in parliamentary publications and PapadimoulisVice-PresidentChair of the High-Level Group on gender Equality and Diversity European Parliament 20183 WHAT IS gender NEUTRALITY I

language policies and proposed such guidelines at various levels. Gender-neutral language is a generic term covering the use of non-sexist language, inclusive language or gender-fair language. The purpose of gender-neutral language is to avoid word choices which may be

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  Language, Gender, Inclusive, Neutral, Inclusive language, Gender neutral language

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Transcription of GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE - European Parliament

1 GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGEin theEuropean Parliament2 FOREWORDIn 2008, the European Parliament was one of the first international organisations toadopt multilingual guidelines on GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE . I am pleased that, sincethen, many other institutions and organisations have adopted similar guidance. Onthe occasion of the 10 year anniversary of the guidelines, and in order to reflectlinguistic and cultural developments, the High-Level Group on gender Equality andDiversity requested Parliament s services to update the GENDER-NEUTRAL languageguidelines, whichprovide practical advice in all official languages on the use ofgender-fair and inclusive behalf of the High-Level Group, I very much welcome this updated edition of thegender- neutral LANGUAGE guidelines which is the fruit of a close collaboration amongthe relevant linguistic and administrative European Parliament remains as committed as ever to the use of gender -neutrallanguage in its written and spoken communications and I now invite the relevantservices to raiseawareness of the updated guidelines and the importance of theiruse in parliamentary publications and PapadimoulisVice-PresidentChair of the High-Level Group on gender Equality and Diversity European Parliament 20183 WHAT IS gender NEUTRALITY IN LANGUAGE ?

2 GENDER-NEUTRAL or gender - inclusive LANGUAGE is more than a matter of political powerfully reflects and influences attitudes, behaviour and order to treat all genders equally, efforts have beenemployed since the 1980s to proposea GENDER-NEUTRAL / gender -fair/non-sexist use of LANGUAGE , so that no gender is privileged, andprejudices against any gender are not part of those efforts, over the last decade, numerous guidelines have been developed andimplemented at international and national level. International and European institutions(such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the International LabourOrganisation, the European Parliament and the European Commission), professionalassociations, universities, major news agencies and publications have adopted guidelines forthe non-sexist use of LANGUAGE , either as separate documents or as specific recommendationsincluded in their style guides.

3 In the European Union,many Member States have also debatedlanguage policies and proposed such guidelines at various LANGUAGE is a generic term covering the use of non-sexistlanguage, inclusive LANGUAGE or gender -fair LANGUAGE . The purpose ofgender- neutral LANGUAGE is to avoid word choices whichmay beinterpreted as biased, discriminatory or demeaning by implying that onesex or social gender is the norm. Using gender -fair and inclusive languagealso helps reduce gender stereotyping, promotes social change andcontributes to achieving gender LANGUAGEIN THE European CONTEXTThe principle of gender equality and non-discrimination on gender grounds is firmly rooted inthe Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and it has beenendorsed by the European Parliament on many occasions. The LANGUAGE usedin Parliamentshould therefore reflect this end, the aim of these guidelines is to ensure that, as far as possible, non-sexist andgender- inclusive LANGUAGE is used also in the Parliament s documents and communications inall official purpose of these guidelines is not to constrain authors in the European Parliament tofollow a mandatory set of rules but rather to encourage the administrative services to givedue consideration to the issue of gender sensitivity in LANGUAGE whenever writing, translatingor must of course be underlined that translators are required to render texts faithfully andaccurately in their own LANGUAGE .

4 If an author intentionally uses gender -specific LANGUAGE , thetranslation will respectthat intention. This makes it all the more important for authors oftexts in Parliament to be fully aware of the principles of GENDER-NEUTRAL far as interpreting is concerned, Parliament s services are fully committed to using GENDER-NEUTRAL LANGUAGE and embracing the associated principles of non-discrimination, recognitionand equality. Consequently, these guidelines are made readily available online and form partof an interpreter s meeting preparation. While interpreters are aware of gender -neutrallanguage standards in their working languages, there are certain constraints, such as the highspeed at which speeches are delivered, the need to respect the speaker's authorship andintentions, avoiding editorial interference, as well as the specific features ofthespoken asopposed tothewritten LANGUAGE , which can make it occasionally difficult to incorporategender- neutral LANGUAGE in simultaneous interpreting, a very fast-paced and highly S SPECIFICITIEST hese guidelines must reflect two particular features of Parliament 's work: first, itsmultilingual working environment and, second, its role as a European legislator.

5 (a)Multilingual contextIn the multilingual environment of the European Parliament , the principles of genderneutrality in LANGUAGE and gender - inclusive LANGUAGE require the use of different strategiesin the various official languages, depending on the grammatical typology of each far as grammatical gender is expressed in the official languages of the Union, a distinctioncan be made between three types of languages and the accompanying strategies to achievegender neutrality:-Natural gender languages(such as Danish, English and Swedish), where personal nouns aremostly GENDER-NEUTRAL and there are personal pronouns specific for each gender . The generaltrend here is to reduce as much as possible the use of gender -specific terms. In theselanguages, the linguistic strategy most usually used is neutralisation. In order to avoid genderreferences, one can use GENDER-NEUTRAL terms, words that are not gender -specific andrefer to people in general, with no reference to women or men ( chairman is replaced by Chair or chairperson , policeman or policewoman by police officer , spokesman by spokesperson , stewardess by flight attendant , headmaster or headmistress by director or principal , etc.)

6 Thisgender- neutral trend has led to the disappearance of the older femaleforms, with the previous male form becoming unisex ( 'actor' instead of 'actress'). gender - inclusive LANGUAGE is also used, replacing, for example, he as a generic reference by theterms he or she .-Grammatical gender languages(such as German, Romance languages and Slavic languages),where every noun has a grammatical gender and the gender of personal pronouns usuallymatches the reference noun. As it is almost impossible, from a lexical point of view, to createwidely accepted GENDER-NEUTRAL forms from existing words in those languages, alternativeapproaches have been sought and recommended in administrative and political ( the use of feminine correspondents of masculine terms or the use of bothterms) is an approach that has become increasingly used in these languages, in particular inprofessional contexts, such as job titles when referring to women.

7 Because most occupationshave been, by tradition, grammatically masculine, with only a few exceptions, typically fortraditionally feminine jobs such as 'nurse' or 'midwife', the feeling of discrimination has beenparticularly strong. Therefore female equivalents started to be created and increasingly usedfor virtually all functions of masculine gender ('Kanzlerin', 'pr sidente', s natrice , assessora ,etc.). Also, replacing the generic masculine with double forms for specific referents ( tutti iconsiglieri e tutte le consigliere ) has gained acceptance in many , the use of generic masculine terms is no longer the absolute practice, even in legislativeacts. For example, in the German version of the Treaty of Lisbon, the generic term citizens appears also as Unionsb rgerinnen und Unionsb rger .6-Genderless languages(such as Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian), where there is nogrammatical gender and no pronominal gender .

8 Those languages do not generally need aparticular strategy to begender- inclusive , save for the very specific cases that are discussedin the particular guidelines for those languages.(b)The European Parliament as a legislatorThe way in which the principle of gender sensitivity in LANGUAGE is reflected in a text alsodepends heavily on the type and register of the text should be careful to ensure that the solution chosen is appropriate for the type oftext and the future uses to which it will be put, while also ensuring sufficient visibility for allgenders example, what may be appropriate in a speech ('Ladies and Gentlemen') or a direct formof address ('Dear Sir or Madam' at the top of a letter) will not necessarily meet the formalconstraints of legislation, which must be clear,simple, precise and consistent, and does notlend itself well to certain drafting solutions aimed at gender neutrality that might createambiguity as to the obligations contained in the text (such as the alternation of masculine andfeminine forms for thegeneric pronoun or use of only the feminine form in some documentsand only the masculine in others).

9 While respecting the need for clarity, the use of a LANGUAGE that is not gender inclusive , inparticular the generic masculine, should be avoided as faras possible in legislative acts. Manylegislative bodies in the Member States have already adopted recommendations going in COMMON TO MOST LANGUAGESA lthough the specific ways to avoid sexist LANGUAGE vary from one LANGUAGE to another, anumber of the following issues are common to most USE OF THE MASCULINE GENDERThe traditional grammatical convention in most grammatical gender languages is that forgroups combining both sexes, the masculine gender is usedas the ' inclusive ' or 'generic' form,whereas the feminine is 'exclusive', referring to women only. This generic or neutralisinguse of the masculine gender has often been perceived as discriminating against grammatical gender languages have developed their own strategies to avoid suchgeneric use.

10 Relevant strategies are described in the specific guidelines at the end of thisbooklet. Solutions that reduce the readability of a text, such as combined forms ('s/he','him/her'), should be addition, the use in many languages of the word 'man' in a wide range of idiomaticexpressions which refer to both men and women, such asmanpower,layman,man-made,statesmen,com mittee of wise men, should be discouraged. With increased awareness, suchexpressions can usually be made combining various strategies (see the specific guidelines), it should be possible, in mostcases, to apply the principle of gender neutrality and fairness in Parliament 's OF PROFESSIONS AND FUNCTIONSWhen referring tofunctionsin Parliament s texts, generic terms are used in natural genderlanguages and in genderless languages, while the masculine form may be used by way ofexception in grammatical gender languages ( chaque d put ne peut soutenir qu unecandidature ).


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