11/03/2022
The debates around gendered and gender-neutral language are different in English and German speaking countries.
Germany tries to use general and inclusive terms that automatically include men, women and non-binary people. Where that is not possible, it makes an effort to include male and female in all sentences to increase the visibility of women and to show that they are not automatically included in the generic term. So no "actor" in German, but "actor/actress", "male employee/female employee".
There are various ways of attempting to write a single word so that it becomes gender-neutral through explicitly mentioning all genders: "Schauspieler*in" , whereby the first part means actor, the * denotes the inclusion of non-binary people and the "in" adds the feminine ending to include women. Other styles are available: SchauspielerIn, Schauspieler/in.
Passion rides high and controversy reigns, and it is important to ask the client which in-house style they use.
English-speaking countries try to use general and inclusive terms that make the gender of the person invisible and therefore irrelevant, which also automatically includes non-binary people. "Actress" has become "actor", and to ensure that the gender of the person in question is not automatically apparent, the pronoun "they" is increasingly used for individual people too.
Passion rides high and controversy reigns, and it is important to ask the client whether they support the use of the pronoun "they" for individual people.
