Feminization is More Gender-Fair Than Neutralization: Evidence From Gender-Stereotyped Contexts
Benjamin Storme & Martin Storme
What the paper says
In many languages, masculine forms are used generically. However, extensive research demonstrates that these forms exhibit a male bias that can adversely affect the perception of opportunities by women. To address this issue, alternative linguistic forms have been proposed, typically categorized into two main strategies: feminization and neutralization. Both approaches have proven effective in reducing the male bias of masculine forms. However, their relative effectiveness remains unclear. This study investigates this question in French. We compare gender representations elicited by three linguistic forms—masculine forms, pair forms (feminization), and neutral forms (neutralization)—against a stereotypical baseline. Our findings reveal that, in stereotypically neutral contexts, neutralization and feminization are equally effective in counteracting the male bias of masculine forms. However, in male- or female-dominated contexts, feminization is less sensitive to contextual bias and therefore more successful in mitigating the influence of stereotypes. Implications and limitations are discussed.
3 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.32 × 0.4 = 0.13 |
| M · momentum | 0.57 × 0.15 = 0.09 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.