¿Presidenta o presidente? Untangling the linguistic debate! / 5 minutes of Spanish / (Englsh version) + Podcast

 

Hello! How are you? Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on where you are or what time you are listening to us.

 

Welcome to this podcast for students of Spanish for foreigners and thank you very much for being here. Let's get to the point: what is today's topic?

 

In these 5 minutes of Spanish, number 201 we are going to refer to the recent election in Mexico as we have a new Head of Government.

 

Presidenta

It is the first time that a woman has been elected to the presidential office in 200 years. I know you are happy because there is a woman in the presidency, but are we going to talk about politics?

 

No, we are not going to talk about politics, everyone already knows the news, it would not be a novelty.

 

Oh, and then?

 

It's just that on the Internet a grammatical debate was generated about the use of the word “president”, a debate about a word?

 

A debate about a word? At election time?

 

You know, the Internet is full of everything and besides, there are not many women in such high positions in America, not to be a feminist.

 

Well, let's get to the point, is it right to use professions in the feminine gender?

 

The election of a female president put the focus on how we use gender in professions. And some on the Internet, criticized: why do they call her president, presidenta, presidenta! in the acts, if the ending ente does not change.

 

Why was the use of “presidenta” questioned?

 

While many professions ending in “ente” are perceived as masculine, not all of them are. The gendering of professions has historically been masculine because many of these professions were only held by men; women did not work.

 

So, is it incorrect to say “presidenta”?

 

No, it is not incorrect. In fact, in Latin America, it is common and valid to use the ending “-a” for professions when referring to women. The Mexican Academy of Language supports this. Thus, we have “presidente” and “presidenta”, “juez” and “jueza”, “director” and “directora”, among others.

 

Juez / jueza - judge

 

Or also, “el gerente” and “la gerente”, in this case it does not change. gerente – manager

 

La docente y el docente, docente-teacher. It is a false friend with English with Museum docent.

 

Let's see more examples of professions and how they change according to gender.

 

"el arquitecto" -"la arquitecta"        - the architect

"el bombero" -  "la bombera"          - fireman / fire woman 

"el ingeniero" - "la ingeniera"        - the engineer

 

There are other professions that are the same for both genders, such as “el/la atleta” and “el/la policía”.

 

So, it is not always necessary to change the ending.

 

Exactly. Some nouns ending in “-e” or “-ista” do not change, such as “el/la estudiante” or “el/la taxista”. Others, such as “el jefe” and “la jefa”, do change.

 

La periodista / el periodista - the journalist

 

What about less common professions?

 

There are also rules. For example, nouns ending in “-or” usually change to “-ora”, such as “el profesor” and “la profesora”.

In contrast, nouns ending in other consonants, such as “el chef” and “la chef”, do not change.

 

So, can we conclude that the use of presidenta is correct and accepted?

 

Yes, definitely. As long as there are women in this profession and speakers who express it and vote for it, using the feminine is completely valid. Its use should not be questioned. Why didn't anyone criticize the use of maid?

 

Oh, feminism is out…

 

We can now say we have a female president.

 

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See you next time,

Bye-bye.