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Original poster

Are there many `gendered` job names left?

80 replies

DropYourSword · 16/10/2013 09:06

Was thinking recently about this and the pointlessness of defining whether the worker is male or female.

Doctor, pilot, teacher, nurse etc aren't gendered (although I do appreciate that some people may assume the workers gender). I know we use headteacher now instead of headmistress / headmaster and stewardess is now flight attendant etc.

The only thing I can think of is waiter and waitress. I wad wondering if there were moreand what the suggestion would be for renaming it.

OP posts:
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TheScreamingNit · 18/10/2013 05:34

We used to call our housemothers "housies," and our head of school was The Principal.
Oddly enough, my school was an all-girls private boarding school with Housies and Principals and Heads of (subject) whereas my brother went to a boys private boarding and had "housemasters," the Headmaster and Masters/Mistresses of (subject). I have no idea if that's got any bearing on anything but I always thought it was interesting.

KateCroydon · 18/10/2013 04:52

Back when I was at school my German teacher said that in Germany keeping the gender difference in job titles was seen as more progressive/feminist. The idea being that if you call women who act actors not actresses you're implicitly saying that the male form is the primary one, and the female is the variant. It is telling that I can't think of a case where only the female form survives, and that calling Richard Armitage an actress seems absurd whereas calling Judi Dench an actor is fine.

ColderThanAWitchsTitty · 18/10/2013 04:37

Ooh Ooh and you lot mock us for being to prudish to call a bathroom a toilet!

SconeRhymesWithGone · 18/10/2013 02:44

I'm not sure "server" for waiting staff would be acceptable in the UK - we don't like to think of anyone in terms of serving another even when that is precisely what is happening

But waiter/waitress/wait staff has the same connotation really, the notion of "waiting on" someone.

maninaskirt · 17/10/2013 19:02

A termite walks into a bar and says, "is the bartender here?"

Ba-doom tish!

TiggyD · 17/10/2013 16:26

No to "Waitron". That's not just a robot. It's a type of evil robot that would invade Earth and try to kill Doctor Who.

Original poster
DropYourSword · 17/10/2013 11:38

I was thinking that platinum. It's too close to servant and servitude for me!

OP posts:
PlatinumStart · 17/10/2013 11:37

DC's school have house masters and mistresses and the head is most definitely the headmaster

I'm not sure "server" for waiting staff would be acceptable in the UK - we don't like to think of anyone in terms of serving another even when that is precisely what is happening

OneLittleToddleTerror · 17/10/2013 11:32

I always call the person carry the post a postie. Maybe it's just me. Hmm

kim147 · 17/10/2013 11:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DinoSnores · 17/10/2013 11:16

At my work, all the Ward Sisters are now known as Charge Nurse. A former colleague, a male charge nurse, said that when he worked in Australia that all the nurses in charge were known as Sister, even him!

Original poster
DropYourSword · 17/10/2013 07:54

I've always thought of my landlord as a landlord to, despite her being female!

I think waitron sounds very robotty, I like host though. Never thought about ward sisters...surely whether male or female you could be called charge nurses.

OP posts:
EBearhug · 17/10/2013 01:37

They're all Waitrons. I thought it sounded like a serving robot

Ah, but "robots" in SA are what we call "traffic lights"...

madamy · 16/10/2013 23:56

I'm a ward sister but my male counterpart is a charge nurse.

Nessalina · 16/10/2013 23:52

When I was a landlord I was always a landlord despite girly status.
A friend from South Africa was telling me he worked as a 'Waitron' when he was at uni, and I was like, 'um, what?', but that's apparently what they use instead of waiter/waitress! They're all Waitrons. I thought it sounded like a serving robot Grin

BerstieSpotts · 16/10/2013 23:47

Soupstained I think that's more to do with the fact that you are allowed to hire one gender or the other although most jobs are advertised for both.

BerstieSpotts · 16/10/2013 23:46

Landlady/Landlord for renting houses, though.

ProcessYellowC · 16/10/2013 22:46

Or landlady and landlord. "Licensee"?

KatherinaMinola · 16/10/2013 22:29

Barmaid and barman. Bartender hasn't really caught on here.

EBearhug · 16/10/2013 21:38

I had a conversation with one of my German colleagues a while back about gendered job names in German, and I have a vague memory he said something about there being some group trying to bring in gender neutral names. Only it was ages back, and he's not currently showing online, and I'll probably have forgotten by tomorrow.

There has been some research, I think in Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass, but it may have been something else - anyway they looked at the adjectives associated with certain gendered words in different language. So bridge is feminine in German, but masculine in Spanish - and they found that the adjectives associated with a bridge do seem to be gendered, whether it focusses on elegant arches or strong support and so on. (It's better explained in the book than my ramblings here...)

PenguinsDontEatPancakes · 16/10/2013 21:15

I would call a male professional nanny nanny. Why wouldn't you Confused?

ColderThanAWitchsTitty · 16/10/2013 21:07

I don't think of grandparent nanny as the same as nanny-nanny though. Are the meant to be?

Lottiedoubtie · 16/10/2013 21:05

I think Nanny is gendered- you wouldn't call a male grandparent Nanny would you?

I agree though, there isn't an appropriate masculine/gender neutral alternative.

slightlysoupstained · 16/10/2013 20:59

Camera operator for cameraman?

Have noticed German job ads in English tend to have (M/F) in brackets after the job title - so I guess that's how they deal with gendered job titles.

ColderThanAWitchsTitty · 16/10/2013 20:59

Only idiots say manny. Nanny isn't gendered is it? If you arent a goat?