Gender-neutral translations are the future! Using gender-inclusive language can help you avoid harmful gender stereotypes and include everyone in your audience.
However, gender-neutral translations are often easier said than done, especially for gendered languages like French, Spanish or Hebrew.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about gender-neutral translation.
What is gender-neutral language?
Gender-neutral language avoids using references to gender. It doesn’t perpetuate gender stereotypes or exclude based on sex or gender identity.
So for example, you might use the gender-neutral plural pronoun “they” instead of “he” or “she”. This ensures your text isn’t targeted to a specific gender – and it creates a more inclusive reading experience for everyone.
There are also many well-known idioms in English that are not gender inclusive, such as the saying “every man for himself”. While it could be argued that in this case “man” is used as the general term for all humans, the phrase fails to be inclusive of all genders. It could be changed to “every person for themselves”, or similar, in order to be gender neutral.
Using gender-neutral words, phrases and structures shows that your business understands how to interact with modern markets. It ensures you don’t exclude or offend your readers – and it can help your audience feel seen and respected. That’s important on a human level, as well as a business one.
The importance of gender-inclusive translation
Language plays an important role in how we perceive the world. Whether you’re translating a web page or a seminar, use gender-neutral language to ensure you don’t reinforce harmful stereotypes.
For example, using “he” in a sentence about an unnamed manager inadvertently reinforces a gender bias about men in positions of power. It might be an accident, but it’s easily avoidable!
Gender-neutral translations show fairness and respect for people from all walks of life. There is a diverse range of experiences and identities out there, so that needs to be reflected in your translations.
Using gender-inclusive language means you won’t reinforce damaging gender ideas or exclude those who may identify as trans or non-binary. It plays an essential role in the modern translator’s job.
Challenges in translating gendered languages
Translating gendered languages like French, Spanish or German can be complicated. These languages use feminine and masculine forms – and this can pose a challenge for translators.
Many phrases may differ depending on the gender of the speaker or recipient. That can be an issue if your audience identifies as non-binary or if you want to appeal to a wider market.
In French, for example, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. All verbs, articles, pronouns and adjectives must agree with this gender, which can make it tough to create an accurate gender-neutral translation in English.
In Romance languages like Spanish and Catalan, the use of “generic masculine” comes from the idea that masculine is the “unmarked” gender and so it can encompass itself and other genders, while feminine is “marked” and can only refer to itself. E.g. “niños” may mean “boys” or “children”, while “niñas” means “girls” and that’s it.
As you can imagine, this leads to confusion. For example, “Los niños de quinto sacaron buenas notas” can be read as either “The children in 5th grade got good grades” or “The boys in 5th grade got good grades”.
Using “niños” only when we mean “boys” and gender-neutral alternatives, like “la clase de quinto”, when we mean “all children in the classroom” is a clear approach that includes everyone.
As it stands, using generic masculine contributes to the idea that being a man and being a person is the same thing, while being a woman or a non-binary person is a separate thing. When translating, if the source text is gender-neutral, I always try to use pre-existing gender-neutral forms (indirect non-binary language), like in the example above. However, that is not always possible or appropriate. Often, I recommend to my clients that they open themselves to using -e/-i word endings (aka direct non-binary language), a newer method of creating a neutral grammatical gender that is not contemplated by the norm yet.
Marina Torruella Bonsoms, English and Japanese to Spanish and Catalan Translator and Subtitler
This isn’t the case for languages without gendered pronouns. For example, Turkish words don’t take a specifically masculine or feminine form. The language even uses gender-neutral pronouns.
For this reason, English isn’t a non-gendered language. It’s known as a natural gendered language, meaning words aren’t inherently masculine or feminine, but the language still uses pronouns to determine gender.
How to translate gender-neutral language: practical tips
Translating gender-neutral language can be tricky, but it’s important to learn how to do it. Let’s take a look.
Choose an alternative
Choose gender-neutral words and trans-inclusive language alternatives whenever possible.
For example, use “flight attendant” instead of “air hostess” or “police officer” in place of “policeman”. This will help you easily include people of all genders and identities.
Consider your target audience
If you’re translating into a gendered language that uses masculine or feminine forms, consider your target audience. You may want to use a slash to avoid reinforcing gender bias – such as “professeur/professeure” in French. Another option in French is to use the middot (or point médian). This works by combining both masculine and feminine agreements to create more inclusive language. For example, “les étudiant·e·s sont intelligent·e·s” or “professeur·e”.
You can maintain the meaning of your source text without resorting to gendered language. There are plenty of gender-neutral words and phrases out there, so you’ll need to ensure your choices fit with the intention of your original text.
Similarly, in some cases it is a good idea to retain gendered language in order to avoid gender stereotypes. For example, when referring to a conference for women in science, we could argue that this is a perfect opportunity to use gendered language rather than gender-neutral language to counter the stereotype that most scientists are men.
As always, context is key. Consider the context of your source – and how you can create the same meaning or sentiment when translating for global markets.
Restructure your sentence
Some translations will be easier than others. For some, it’s just a case of using a plural pronoun like “they” instead of “he” or “she”. For others, you may need to alter your sentence structure.
For example, you can use passive voice to reword your translation. “The chef creates his masterpiece” becomes “the masterpiece is being created by the chef”.
There’s no right answer. Be open-minded, creative and inclusive to find the best solution for you and your audience!
Examples of gender-neutral translation
Let’s take a look at some gender-neutral translations in gendered languages – before and after comparisons into English.
French: Le pompier a sauvé ma vie
Literal English translation: The fireman saved my life
Inclusive English translation: The firefighter saved my life
The source French text uses the word “pompier”, which is a masculine noun (demonstrated by the article “le”) and translates as “fireman”. However, a gender-neutral translation is “firefighter”.
Spanish: Tu agente hace muy bien su trabajo
Literal English translation: Your agent is doing his work very well or Your agent is doing her work very well
Inclusive English translation: The work your agent is doing is very well done
While this Spanish sentence is already gender neutral since “su” can mean “his” or “her” depending on the context, we need to make sure we retain this in the English translation. In this case, we’ve changed the sentence from active to passive voice to remove gendered pronouns and avoid perpetuating bias about the agent’s gender. An alternative could be to replace “his” or “her” in the literal translation with “their”.
Languages that don’t have gender – advantages in translation
Languages without gender can act as a framework for gender-inclusive translation. Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian don’t have grammatical gender so they don’t have gendered pronouns or adjectives.
You can translate from and into these languages without worrying about gender-exclusive pronouns. In Turkish, there are 6 personal pronouns: “ben” (I), “sen” (you), “o” (he/she/it) and “onlar” (they). Using “o” or “onlar” can refer to a male, female or genderless party.
This has become a helpful framework for gender-neutral translation. For example, you’ll often see the English plural pronoun “they” to replace “he” in modern texts – and other widely-spoken languages are following this model, too.
Sweden has introduced the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” and Spanish speakers may replace masculine and feminine word endings with “e”. This creates a gender-inclusive form of traditionally gendered words.
It can be tricky to translate in a gender-neutral way, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The result is a better and more inclusive experience for everyone.
At LEaF Translations, our expert translators work with native speakers to help you navigate these sensitive nuances and ensure your translations are accurate and inclusive for your target market.
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