UNDP Turkey report aims to combat sexists language and gender-driven stereotypes

Filiz Gazi / Duvar English

Turkey's branch of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently published its Gender Sensitivity Communication Guide, in order to help fight rampant gender-driven stereotypes and sexist language that is common in everyday life and in the workplace in Turkey.

The report urges against usingterminology that is very common in both professional and personalenvironments that is laden with sexist overtones or which impliesthat certain characteristics and occupations are unique to either menor women.

It notes that some personality traitsfrequently ascribed to women in Turkey include being polite,sensitive, emotional, whiny, and gossipy, while traits consideredmasculine include being enterprising, brave, competitive, henpecked,and boorish.

Occupations described as typicallythought to be 'female' include babysitters, nurses, flightattendants, teachers and secretaries, while those among thetraditionally 'male' occupations are doctors, tradesmen, engineers,pilots, technicians, and judges.

“With reference to the assumptionthat an occupation is unique to men, refrain from using marginalizingstatements by adding “female” prior to the occupation,” thereport said, adding that a female journalist should not be describedas a “female journalist” but simply as a journalist, while alsoexplaining that a male nurse should be referred to as nurse insteadof a “male nurse.”

The report also called for the use ofkadın, the Turkish word for woman, rather than bayan,which more closely translates to 'lady' and is considered out of dateand mildly sexist, since the male equivalent of bayan (bay) is almostnever used in daily speech.

In Turkish it wouldbe common for a male boss in an office to say “Let's assign thisjob to our girl,” while the report instead recommends saying “Iwould appreciate if our assistant could take on this assignment.”Also common is the term “canım” (my dear), a term of affectionthat is used among friends as well as in casual conversations anddoes not sound creepy or odd like it might in English, however thereport said that in the workplace, an employee's actual name shouldbe used in place of such informal terms.

Other examples,which might be seen frequently in Turkish daily newspapers, includesuch language as “Researchers generally neglect wives andchildren,” while the report says the more appropriate alternativewould be “researchers generally neglect spouses and children.”Instead of noting that “a female doctor from Turkey achievessuccess,” one should write, “a doctor from Turkey achievessuccess,” according to the report.