Note: In order to improve the readability of the text, the masculine form is used to refer to persons, functions, etc. However, it stands for all genders without exception.
Assuming that you’re male, would you be inclined to apply for a job if the description referred only to the “female employee who will hold this position” and what “her” responsibilities will be?
That’s essentially analogous to the situation that women have when applying for jobs in German-speaking countries.
This is a recent thing insisting that words don't include women because they have a male genus. And only in this specific direction. Nobody complains that men are not persons because "person" is always a "she" in German.
The burden of proof still lies on the people arguing that word X does not include women.
German work anti-discrimination laws are very pro-employee. I know a case where a company had an advert for a "junior developer" and a guy in his late 50s who got rejected after sending his application sued for sole purpose of age discrimination. The company settled in the end for almost a years salary after the judge hinted that a settlement would be wise (labour cases are often settled in Germany). Just because the usage of the word "junior".
In German, "Softwareentwickler" (software developer) is the male form, so for a long time, any job ad would say "Softwareentwickler/in" (short for "Softwareentwickler oder Softwareentwicklerin") to cover both forms. Nowadays, you can't do that either because that'd exclude people who don't identify with either gender, so I guess this is the workaround they use now to not get sued into oblivion even before interviewing the first candidate.
rafram|2 years ago
Assuming that you’re male, would you be inclined to apply for a job if the description referred only to the “female employee who will hold this position” and what “her” responsibilities will be?
That’s essentially analogous to the situation that women have when applying for jobs in German-speaking countries.
blueflow|2 years ago
The burden of proof still lies on the people arguing that word X does not include women.
unknown|2 years ago
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littlecranky67|2 years ago
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