Gender in Occupational Titles : A corpus-based case study on the frequency of use of selected occupational titles and their gender-neutral counterparts

Abstract

The way language is used has the power to shape reality. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and avoid unequal linguistic structures. The current paper focuses on the use of androcentric or otherwise gendered occupational titles. In specific, this paper examines if there has been a shift in the frequency of use of selected, traditionally gendered occupational titles toward gender-neutral options. The study was conducted as a corpus-based case study, utilizing the Corpus of Contemporary American English as the source for material. The examined timeframe was from 1990 to 2019 and all text genres available in the COCA were included. The results of the study were ambiguous. Of the four examined occupational titles, fireman and policeman were replaced by their gender-neutral counterparts by the end of the examined period. However, mailman and salesman remained as the most frequently used options throughout the whole timeframe. The genres the words appeared most frequently in could offer some insight into the division: the gendered versions were most frequently used in fiction, whereas the gender-neutral versions in newspapers. This might indicate that the gendered titles are more commonly used in informal contexts and gender-neutral ones in formal contexts. The topic is a fertile ground for further research. It would be especially important to study how language use in professional contexts could be made truly gender-neutral and inclusive to all genders.