As of: March 28, 2024, 3:24 p.m
By: Caspar Felix Hoffmann
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Gender symbols will no longer be used in Hessian ministries in the future. Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) ordered this.
Wiesbaden - The Hessian state government under Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) has banned the use of gender language in the ministries, the state chancellery and the Hessian state representation in Berlin in a recent decision. It explicitly prohibits the use of gender symbols such as asterisks, underscores or colons in official documents.
The background is the coalition agreement of the black-red government, which provides for the abolition of gender language in public administration and other state and public institutions. Instead, gender-neutral language or a combination of masculine and feminine forms preceded by the feminine form should be used.
The word teacher is written in different gender spellings on a whiteboard. (Archive, symbolic image) © Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
The Spelling Council wants to continue to monitor developments
This policy also extends to the education system, where the Ministry of Culture recently decreed that the use of gender symbols in final theses is considered an error. Both decisions are based on the Council for German Spelling, which sees gender-equitable language as a social task that cannot be solved through spelling alone. The Council has not recommended the use of special characters in gender-appropriate language, but reserves the right to continue to monitor developments.
This is what the Duden says: double mention and slash
According to the Duden, the double mention of the female and male form (colleagues, students, everyone) is the most polite and clearest variant of linguistic equality. It is particularly common in salutations.
The most common shortened form of linguistic equality between the sexes, which is also covered by official spelling, is the variant with a slash and a hyphen: employees, teachers. Although the hyphen is still required according to the official spelling rules, it was and is often omitted for typographical reasons: employees, teachers. (cas)
Reactions to this instruction have been mixed. While the Ministry of Economics welcomes the decision as a step towards a more uniform and understandable language in administration, the Green Party in the Hessian state parliament is critical. She sees the regulation as making no contribution to solving specific problems and accuses the coalition of acting against its own principles. (cas)