A feminist voice against the feminization of the masculine names of professions in Polish

Abstract

The paper analyzes various possible linguistic norms that could govern the feminine forms, which slowly appear in the Polish language, and which correspond to the masculine names of professions. Adopting a basically feminist standpoint leads one to reject those proposals, which would legislate that the masculine forms ought to be applied to men while the feminine forms ought to be applied to women. The article considers in particular the inferential roles of concepts to argue for a gender-neutral rendition of the historically masculine forms.