Considerations Regarding the Gender of Professions in the Romanian Language

Most of known past and present societies of the world have been concerned with gender and have established fixed standards and rules in order to define the identity of a man as dissimilar from that of a woman. These standards and rules have become an integral part of and have shaped the identity of the individuals they have influenced. Since birth men and women are treated differently and are expected to differentiate themselves by means of the clothes they wear, by means of the jobs they choose, by means of the manner in which they use the language.“Starting with the clothes we wear, the spaces we occupy, the jobs we do, and the languages we speak, everything is gendered. This encoding of our daily life and habits directly impacts our sociocultural and economic status in society. (...) Ironically, however, even though people practice gender in their everyday lives they feel awkward talking about it.” (Husting, n.d.). This manner of thinking has given rise to numerous issues that the contemporary society wants to clarify and to solve. The present paper focuses on forms of address used for men and for women and suggests solutions that can be used in order to achieve political correctness.