Are there many `gendered` job names left?

[DropYourSword]

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.

Fireman - rarely hear Firefighter in the UK

Also I think people tend on the whole to say Policeman / Policewoman rather than police officer if referring to a particular person

Actress is still used a lot rather than actor.

I teach an ESOL class and I really struggled with alternatives to repair man as repair person doesn't sound like natural English. Others were easier so gas man can be gas engineer etc. Dinner lady versus lunchtime supervisor was another tricky one. It's hard to find the balance between teaching the language people use and not using sexist language.

I've missed some really obvious ones

I think lunchtime assistant / supervisor is pretty usual now, though - certainly at dd's primary that is what they were always called

midwife! Does that count?

binman - any alternative is very cumbersome

It just occurred to me, do you think that places where they speak a gendered language have a harder time reducing sexism? eg. Spanish where a computer programmer is programador/programadora (defaulting to male)

ha - xpost IamGlueZilla

I still hear manageress in retail......cringe!

Midwives can be male or female, there isn't a different term for a male one.

Rubbish collector - lots of them are women here so binman would be a bit silly!

So if you're a male midwife, your job title is still 'midwife'? Interesting.

Midwife translates roughly as 'with woman/mother' the wife part is not a reference to the gender of the person attending the birth but a reference to the person giving birth. So yes midwife can be male or female

Postman

I noticed this yesterday when applying for dd's passport; the form said that the post man would require a signature.

That is very true, Mrsbugsy - hadn't thought of that one. I tend to say postie anyway but not really good on official forms

I always thought that midwife meant wifes helper nothing to do with the midwife being a wife if that makes sence.

Sorry dick I didn't see your post

Yes I think it is different when the language is gendered.

I think waiter/waitress could be table staff or waiting staff, but that's more of a plural I suppose.

Actor/actress although I hear that actor is beginning to be used for both (similar to author).

It's interesting how resistant we can be to new words. Lunchtime supervisor seems so cumbersome to me but it's only two more syllables than dinner lady and it's obviously a much better term. I guess it hasn't got the history or emotional associations for me.

Yep, male midwives are midwives.
Not friggin midhusbands, that so many witty men used to joke about when I used to work with male midwives

I think it is possibly because, for example, actor feels more gender neutral. Actress feels like the word actor, with a bit tacked on to show that it's a female actor.

Now, of course, there is a question about why that is. Probably related to the fact that there was a stage when only men did these jobs. So it was 'job' and 'job done by a woman'.

Then, of course, there are the titles that evolved to use the word 'man' in the title, in which case the male hasn't been adopted for all (except possibly Chairman, as Chair always feels a bit informal and Chairperson does sound a bit odd? Not sure). A neutral version has had to be found.