Past events

Reflecting on Gender-Just Language Instruction at the U of M:
Spanish and Portuguese Instructors’ Attitudes and Future Steps

Presentation & discussion (In-person and online)

Friday, April 14th, 2023

12:00-1:30 p.m. (CDT)

Just like many other Romance languages, Spanish and Portuguese conventionally have a binary grammatical gender system (i.e. masculine and feminine) and this has been a challenge in terms of representation since the masculine form is used as a default to refer to a group of mixed genders or of unknown gender (i.e. generic masculine) and gender identities outside of the conventional binary have been excluded. Multiple different approaches have been taken in an effort to achieve a more equal linguistic representation of all genders (e.g. using both male and feminine at once such as “todos y todas” or adopting a new morpheme that is not associated with the conventional binary genders, as in “latinx” or “todes” instead of “latino” or “todos”). Even though multiple studies, including one conducted by the World Bank in 2018, have reported that the linguistic disparity between genders result in real-life inequalities, the gender-inclusive forms are yet to be accepted by many native speakers. Not unexpectedly, students who study Spanish as a foreign language in the U.S. are still less likely to be exposed to the gender-inclusive varieties. 

Based on interviews of the majority of the instructors in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies (including the tenure-line faculty, lecturers, teaching specialists, and graduate instructors), we analyzed the motivations behind each instructor’s decision to incorporate (or not to incorporate) the gender-inclusive language in the classroom, and determined how their approaches to gender-inclusivity vary. The participants were also encouraged to share their opinions as to what their supervisors and the department as a whole can do to assist this effort to nurture a more accepting learning environment for students. As the transgender and nonbinary population continues to grow in the younger generations in the U.S. (according to a 2022 report by the Pew Research Center), it is crucial that all instructors are well-informed about the inclusive language since the large teaching staff in the department impact more than a thousand students every semester. 

This event was sponsored by the Gender Equity Grant from the Women's Center.