What started out as a joke in face of the never-ending discussions about “gendered” language in the University of Leipzig has been taken seriously by its board of directors and approved by its president, Beate Schücking. All professors are now referred to in the feminine form.
In German, professor refers to a man and professorin refers to a woman – literally a “professoress.” When unspecified, the word reverts to the masculine form. The university of Leipzig has now adopted new language guidelines that refer to all professors in official documents as professorin, unless they refer to professors in general, they are then called professorinnen.
It seems that some female professors are offended by the masculine term professor and want the feminine form to be used for either sex. So much for gender-neutral terms, it now appears that any masculine reference must be annihilated in the never-ending quest for “equality.”
This new measure has received full support from no less than professorin of Economics Friederike Maier, who also happens to be a member of the European Union’s Commission’s Network of Gender Equality and Employment. Somehow she thinks that using a woman’s title for a man, promotes equality.
She has contributed to the guidelines commissioned by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) that advocates a utopian concept of equality be imposed upon every member state of the EU, including foreign international organizations. In this study, there is a reference to women becoming “more equal” than men. Just how does one become more equal is never revealed. However, this type of verbiage indicates the insanity of the EIGE’s objective.
Maier has been quoted in Duz Magazine stating, “When we women complain of being sidelined, as a rule our colleagues respond with a faint smile. Now that it’s the other way around, the men are grumbling. Maybe we’ll ultimately achieve a culture of gender equality.”1
In an effort to create a European Union Gender Equality Index (EUEI), concrete and defined terms have not been established. The EIGE’s study on equality is rife with phrases such as, researchers seem to agree or there appears to be some unanimity, and that most researchers agree that gender equality has different dimensions that cannot be easily summarized in one single unidimensional indicator.2 In other words, nothing can be proven and everything must be accepted upon assumptions.
One is left horrified with the blatant ambiguities set forth in a study that will have a substantial impact on the lives of millions of people. Imagine if a pharmaceutical company developed a new drug and offered it to the public without the necessary rigors of laboratory testing to achieve the hard data required for FDA approval and promoted it with the phrases like, most researchers agree this should work, or our tests cannot be easily summarized using one single unidimensional indicator. It certainly would not sell.
One is left perplexed as to what the ultimate goals are of a commission like the EIGE or those of “professoress” Maier. Is this a delusional quest for an egalitarian society, or the malice to invert good order?