How to Reduce Gender Bias in the Spanish Language

Gender-Neutral Spanish?

Can not you just hate second-language noun and adjective genders?

Choosing the right ends, watching for agreements, and beating yourself when you make mistakes.

Most students face this. I still correct myself mid-conversation after 20 years of Spanish!

Because English does not have noun genders, it is a nightmare for native speakers. Most of the world’s major languages, including some of the most popular to learn, include gender norms.

Is not it simpler if they did not exist?

Well, many Spanish-speaking individuals want to support that.

A movement is growing to decrease or eliminate gendered language in daily life.
Spanish Gender Issues?

Spanish inequality is the key issue.

Adjectives, pronouns, and nouns always match the gender of the person they describe.

In English, “doctor” and “lawyer” do not indicate gender, but in Spanish, “doctor/a” and “abogado/a” do.

It may seem insignificant, yet this distinction might cause issues. A minister of government is a secretario, while a secretary or typist is a secretaria.

Feminine words are devalued. Using la secretario or a similar term to refer to a female cabinet minister requires conscious modification.

It is not just professions. When talking about persons, use masculine plural. If there is a mix of men and women, the masculine term ellos is used.

Even with 100 women and one man!
Why Neutral Spanish?

Spanish gender is exclusive. It devalues women and harms transgender individuals.

It is hard to justify Spanish’s binary male and female forms with 50% of American millennials recognizing more than two genders.

It’s not just Spanish. French, Portuguese, and Italian are also limited. German, Hebrew, and Russian, non-Romance languages, share similar gender difficulties.
Using Gender-Neutral Spanish

Many approaches exist to reduce Spanish prejudice.

The most drastic option is to replace the customary ends (-o, -os, -a, and -as) with -e for singular and -es for plural. You could say:

les ciudadanes instead of los ciudadanos todes les miembres instead of todos los miembros my amigues instead of mis amigos

This new pronunciation strategy is best for spoken Spanish. Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, used “e” in a recent TV broadcast on the COVID-19 lockdown, a tendency that began five years ago.
5 Ways to Write Gender-Neutral Spanish

1. The masculine plural form can use “@” instead of “o”.

Since the mid-1990s, it has been used informally. 2. Signs advertising compañer@s de piso or voluntari@s are common. The letter x replaced the Latino -o/-a ending in 2014.

Americans of all genders in the US.

If they do not work for you, there are more ways to employ inclusive expressions in Spanish without infringing the rules.

3. To eliminate gendered terminology in speech, adopt alternate phrasing.

La gente que hace… or las personas que hacen… instead of los que hacen…

4. Neutral adjectives do not alter with the noun.

Amable, fuerte, leal, feliz, interesante, and idealista are examples. It is best to start with a gender-neutral descriptor, although it is not always possible.

5. Write -o(s) and -a(s).

This might be los voluntarios or los/las voluntarios/as. Both are gender-inclusive, however they can be long or hard to pronounce.
Against Gender Removal in Spanish

Authorities oppose Spanish gender-neutral language.

The Real Academia Española (RAE), which sets Spanish usage standards, has openly condemned Latinx’s “x” ending. The deputy prime minister of Spain’s report recommending gender-neutral nouns has also been withheld.

Individuals oppose gender-neutral Spanish pronouns and language. Last year, barely 2% of American Hispanics were comfortable using Latinx.