Open Access

Rudolf Windisch

• The terms gendern (< engl. gender) or gendering in German stand for the attempt to establish equality between men and women in everyday life or in political controversy, in academic life by means of linguistic methods. The representatives (plural feminine) of the feminist language criticism/ Feministische Linguistik call for the dissolution of the “generic masculine” for ex. jeder Lehrer (masculine/feminine) means a gender-mixed group whose gender/sex is neither relevant, nor known. It is criticized that the female teacher is not explicitly mentioned. The question here is whether the desired gender-appropriate treatment of all women germ. das Gendern – the genderconscious use of language – is guaranteed by diacriticalorthographic procedures such as internal I: LehrerInnen (fem. pl.), slash (/): Leser/innen (masc.sg./pl.;/f.pl.), asterisk shape: Lehrer*innen or gender-gap: ein_e Beamt_er_in (an official, m./f. sg.) or by replacement of pair shapes like die Arbeitnehmenden (employees; instead of the ‘classic form’ Arbeitnehmer/Arbeitnehmerinnen) or the participial construction die Fahrzeugführenden/ the vehicle-carrying/drivers.