March 8th is el Día Internacional de la Mujer, (International Women´s Day), which is widely celebrated in Spain. After Spain became a democracy in 1978, the government created some important institutions with the goal of empowering women. In 1983 El Instituto de la Mujer (Women’s Institute) was created with the objective of fighting discrimination based on gender and is managed by el Ministerio de Sanidad (Secretary of Health).
One of the primary goals of this day is to work towards equal pay for women in the workforce. What better time to remind ourselves how we use nouns for professions that express gender.
THE MOST COMMON ENDING:
– a: maestro –a (teacher), veterinario –a (veterinarian), ingeniero –a (engineer), arquitecto –a (architect)
ALSO VERY COMMON:
-esa: alcalde / alcaldesa (major), príncipe / princesa (prince / princess)
-isa : poeta / poetisa (poet), diácono / diaconisa (deacon)
-ina : rey /reina (king / queen), héroe / heroína (hero)
-triz : actor / actriz (actor / actress)
-ora : escritor / escritora (writer), presentador / presentadora (anchor)
Sometimes the ending is the same for both genders, but we mark the feminine form by using the article ‘la’ in front instead of ‘el':
-a : el / la atleta (athlete), el / la pediatra (pediatrician)
-ista : el / la artista (artist), taxista (taxi driver), electricista (electrician)
-e : el / la estudiante (student)
SOME NEW FEMININES
As women have been entering all realms of professions, words in the feminine that didn’t exist in earlier times are now being used such as: jefe / jefa (boss), juez / jueza (judge) presidente / presidenta (president).
