Feminine job titles

[Yellow Fang]

I saw a plaque outside the dentists' this morning with the following wording:

"Mary Russell Mitford
(1787 to 1855)
The distinguished authoress of
Our Village
resided here
during her girlhood."
​

Women authors tend not to be called authoresses any more. I have been wondering which feminine versions of professional titles are acceptable these days and which aren't.

 

[LosingFocus]

I've seen a major increase in the use of the term actor for both sexes; same with comedian and host.

Oh, and the one I like to use in certain company is the "chef" is the male version of the female "cook"

 

[Chromatic]

This fad for not using the feminine when describing some professions pisses me off for some reason. In our newspaper this Sunday there was a picture of an actress, can't remember who, and they called her an actor in the picture caption. WTF is wrong with calling her an actress ??

 

[Red Light]

Mother?

 

[coffeejo]

I was pondering this the other day. Headmistress/master have become headteacher. Flight attendant instead of steward and air hostess. In fact, most professions have adopted a gender-neutral title, seemingly without fuss, though some refuse to change. Landlord and landlady, for example, or binmen.

 

[007fair]

Not exactly on topic but consistent with the opening post
At the start of JK Rowlings career the publishers insisted on JK instead of her real full name as some people would be put off if the author was female This train of thought is behind the neutral job titles

 

[RedRider]

Dominatrix seems fine.

 

[007fair]

Dominatrix seems fine.

In the type of profession where its best to be absolutely sure of the gender

 

[Yellow Fang]

Dominatrix seems fine.

Dominatrix was one of the examples I was thinking about. The female equivalent of aviator is aviatrix (e.g. Amy Johnson). This sounds a bit daft. The female equivalent of poet used to be poetess, which also sounds daft. However, while I was listening to R4 the other day, the speaker was talking about an author who moved into his square. I wanted to know whether the author was male or female to complete the picture in my mind, and didn't know until he said 'she'.

 

[Melonfish]

Actually i would think that referring to a woman as actor would be rather insulting? like calling a man an actress really...

Headmistress?
Hostess? although i must admit it irks me when people say "with thanks to our gracious host" when they're referring to a lady, it'd be like calling a man a hostess.
erm, what else? Nurse Used to be feminine but it has since become neutral.
Maid? as in a cleaning maid or helper? the male equivalent is usually Footman.

 

[MontyVeda]

personally I think neutrality is a good thing... as we live in a culture where we judge people's ability by gender to a certain extent.

Imagine breaking down on the motorway, calling the AA or RAC and being told "A mechanicess will be with you shortly" ... I'm not claiming women can't be as competent as a bloke with a spanner, but in such a male dominated profession, I reckon many would think "Cant you send a bloke?"

 

[srw]

I wanted to know whether the author was male or female to complete the picture in my mind.

Why? Did you want to know whether she was black or white? Gay or straight? Young or old? Successful or unsuccessful?

Someone's sex is utterly irrelevant to their ability to do the overwhelming majority of jobs, so there should in principle be absolutely no need to distinguish by job title. We should think ourselves lucky we have a language where this is possible, and don't need to resort to the German abomination "Mitarbeiter/in".

 

[Shaun]

Barber / Hairdresser? (Hair technician ... lol)

 

[srw]

Barber / Hairdresser? (Hair technician ... lol)

Near us we have Danielle's Barbers. Danielle is very definitely a woman.

 

[Archie_tect]

Danielle is very definitely a woman.

You can't be sure...