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'Oui, la présidente': guardians of French language mull gender rules in latest twist in grammar equality row
The official guardians of the French language appear set to accept feminine versions of professions and titles after 20 years of stonewalling the idea, in the latest twist in the battle for linguistic gender equality.
The Académie Française, the gatekeeper of the French language, has been at the heart of a heated row in recent weeks over whether French is sexist by design and requires fundamental change.
Feminists have accused the Immortals, as the institution's mainly male members are called, of being behind the curve after the body came out staunchly against so-called "inclusive writing" - an attempt to make French grammar more politically correct and gender neutral - warning that it placed the language in "mortal peril".
But it has now emerged that the purists have pledged to look into rubber stamping a string of female versions of titles, ranks and professions following a request to do so from the president of the Court de Cassation, France's supreme court.
Until now the masculine was officially de rigueur unless a profession was mainly conducted by women, or a female made a special request to be referred to that way.
In a letter, the court's presiding judge Bernard Louvel pointed out that "the use of feminine versions of posts has spread throughout the public service and the judicial corps".
The French justice ministry, he said, had for some time referred to a female presiding judge as "la présidente" or "la juge" instead of "le président" or "le juge" and a female prosecutor as "la procureure" as opposed to the masculine "le procureur".
"Has usage sufficiently evolved to lead the Académie to change its point of view?," he enquired.
In response, Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, the "perpetuel secretary" of the Académie conceded that it was time to consider revising the rules.
She said it was normal to "respond to the legitimate aspirations of our female fellow citizens, who wish to see their place in social and notably professional life recognised by suitable denominations".
However, the Académie has shown no sign of reversing its position on more controversial aspects of "écriture exclusive".
It remains dead against splitting up words using a punctuation point called a middot, so that for example the plural word “amis” (friends) becomes “ami·e·s” and “citoyens” (citizens) becomes “citoyen·ne·s.”
It has also rejected calls to end the rule that makes "the masculine trump the feminine" in plural endings - meaning ten sisters and one brother are collectively "heureux" - happy in a masculine way. The French ministry for gender equality has previously described the practice as a form of sexual tyranny.
Prime minister Édouard Philippe waded into the row this week by ordering inclusive writing not to be used in official government texts.
Mr Philippe wrote in a memo to his ministers that "the masculine (form) is a neutral form which should be used for terms liable to apply to women".
"State administrations must comply with grammatical and syntactic rules, especially for reasons of intelligibility and clarity," he wrote.
The debate comes as a flurry of revelations about sexual harassment and assault continue to make headlines across the world.
President Emmanuel Macron is due to outline a national plan against sexism and sexual harassment and violence on Saturday. More than 700,000 people have signed petitions calling on him to take "urgent action".