User:Gobonobo/feminine forms



This is a table documenting the incidence of the marked feminine form for various professions within Wikipedia. Incidences of gender-neutral or masculine form comparison terms are presented for context and contrast.

Gendered terms can be interpreted as sexist, particularly when the person's sex is beside the point. Through semantic derogation, words that refer to women have acquired belittling or sexual connotations. Linguist Dennis Baron has written that, in the English language, feminine nouns "tend to acquire negative connotations at a much faster rate than masculine or neuter ones, creating semantic imbalances in originally parallel masculine/feminine gender pairs." While most of the terms included here are constructed through suffixation (e.g. lawyer-ess), gender-marked forms may also be constructed through compounding (e.g. she-devil; lady-doctor). Compounds of this sort often have a negative or even contemptuous connotation.

Relevant guidelines for editors include:
 * Wikipedia's Manual of Style says to "use gender-neutral language where this can be done with clarity and precision".
 * Gender-neutral language (WP:GNL) elucidates on the guideline
 * Use modern language (WP:MODLANG) gives further guidance


 * Data collected on 10 April 2015.