Interestingly, at one time it would have been acceptable for English speakers refer to a female doctor as a “doctrix” or “doctress”, both terms which are now considered obsolete.
German is currently going the opposite direction, because job names are visibly gendered in German and they generally follow traditional gender roles. I kinda hate it, people would naturally start assuming that a doctor etc. can be female if we consistently used the generic masculinum (which was widely used until gender became a big topic 10-20 years ago). Now you have to say awkward stuff like “Ärzte und Ärztinnen” (doctors and doctresses) or “Ärzt*innen” all the time. Wish we’d at least widely adopt a form that was truly gender neutral, in contrast to e.g. Spanish German already does have a neutral grammatikal gender. e.g. das Ärzty/die Ärztys (Entgendern nach Phettberg).
Interestingly, at one time it would have been acceptable for English speakers refer to a female doctor as a “doctrix” or “doctress”, both terms which are now considered obsolete.
German is currently going the opposite direction, because job names are visibly gendered in German and they generally follow traditional gender roles. I kinda hate it, people would naturally start assuming that a doctor etc. can be female if we consistently used the generic masculinum (which was widely used until gender became a big topic 10-20 years ago). Now you have to say awkward stuff like “Ärzte und Ärztinnen” (doctors and doctresses) or “Ärzt*innen” all the time. Wish we’d at least widely adopt a form that was truly gender neutral, in contrast to e.g. Spanish German already does have a neutral grammatikal gender. e.g. das Ärzty/die Ärztys (Entgendern nach Phettberg).