The effort to use gender-appropriate language is recognized as an essential aspect of the general effort to achieve equality. The basis for this development is the insight that our society, our language and our use of language historically presuppose a dominance of the male, which puts women at a disadvantage in their social importance and visibility and in their personal impact. Language is an essential instrument in the change towards greater gender equality. In the German-speaking debate on gender mainstreaming, grammatical regulation and orthographie norms are confronted with demands of language policy. Referring to the wide scope of gender-sensitive strategies in existing guidelines and recommendations, alternatives of orthographically correct as well as linguistically appropriate text realizations are evaluated trying to balance both poles of discourse: Gender-fair texts should be factually correct, comprehensible and legible as well as they should guarantee legal certainty and unambiguity. In addition, they should concentrate on core information for both readers and listeners.
Sprachwandel und geschlechtergerechte Sprache
Sylvia Handschuhmacher
2023-01-01
Abstract
The effort to use gender-appropriate language is recognized as an essential aspect of the general effort to achieve equality. The basis for this development is the insight that our society, our language and our use of language historically presuppose a dominance of the male, which puts women at a disadvantage in their social importance and visibility and in their personal impact. Language is an essential instrument in the change towards greater gender equality. In the German-speaking debate on gender mainstreaming, grammatical regulation and orthographie norms are confronted with demands of language policy. Referring to the wide scope of gender-sensitive strategies in existing guidelines and recommendations, alternatives of orthographically correct as well as linguistically appropriate text realizations are evaluated trying to balance both poles of discourse: Gender-fair texts should be factually correct, comprehensible and legible as well as they should guarantee legal certainty and unambiguity. In addition, they should concentrate on core information for both readers and listeners.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
