8 March: masculine or feminine? The words that change perspective in the University of Insubria’s Vocabulary of Gender Studies.

On the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Day, the University of Insubria invites us “to look carefully at the language we use every day. Because words are never neutral: they tell the story of society, roles and cultural change,” as Professor Paola Biavaschi, the Rector’s Delegate for Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities, points out.

This awareness led last year to the creation of the “Vocabulary of Gender Studies”, a volume edited by Paolo Nitti, a lecturer at the University of Insubria, and published by Franco Cesati Editore. The project was carried out with the contribution of the PhD programme in Law and Human Sciences at the University and forms part of the activities of Insubria’s Unesco Chair dedicated to equal opportunities and inclusion. 

The volume, with a preface by Professor Barbara Pozzo, brings together dozens of entries devoted to gender studies and was created with a clear aim: to offer a rigorous yet accessible tool for understanding how language describes identities, relationships and social dynamics. It does not merely define terms, but reconstructs their historical and cultural evolution, showing how words change together with society. 

Browsing through the vocabulary, readers come across words that are now widely used in public debate, as well as others that are less well known:

• ableism, which refers to discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities;
• amatonormativity, that is, the widespread idea that personal fulfilment necessarily passes through a romantic relationship;
• agender, a term describing people who do not identify with a defined gender identity. 

But change also comes through much more everyday words.
For example:

• mayor / female mayor
• lawyer / female lawyer
• architect / female architect
• minister / female minister
• professor / female professor

For a long time, in the Italian language, professions and public offices were referred to almost exclusively in the masculine form, even when they were held by women. The vocabulary invites readers to reflect precisely on these linguistic and cultural mechanisms, which are not only grammatical but also tell the story of society. 

The “Vocabulary of Gender Studies” was therefore created as a study tool, but also as an invitation to adopt a more conscious use of words: a topic that closely concerns the worlds of information, education and communication.

The volume, available through traditional and online sales channels, is also held in the Economics library and included in the examination programme for Educational Linguistics.