Translated Gender

Translated Gender translates text from gender specific to gender nonspecific.

Recently, increasing numbers of professionals are taking note of the importance of gender non-specific language. Use of words like mailman or saleswoman to describe a mail-carrier or sales representative respectively are highly detrimental. These words can discourage those of a certain gender from entering a profession, and also alienate those who do not identify as either male or female. There was no feasible to solution to this problem, so I attempted to solve it. Rather than translating from from language to language with an app like Google Translate, Translated Gender will take a passage and point out to the user all offensive and gender-specific language the passage contains.

I take a non traditional approach concerning the output itself. Rather than spitting back a sentence that is corrected, I chose to only show the incorrect words and their correct counterparts. This both creates an emphasis on the incorrect for easy use and reinforces the use of gender non-specific language (the ultimate goal) because the user must actually change the passage themselves after being informed.

I believe I have the largest list of gender specific language (as far as I can find). But given the freshness of this app, our database might be missing a few words. I urge the users to take advantage of the did I miss a word feature to help improve the app and by extension society.

By using the app you can

Appear professional

Educate yourself on the correct way to speak

Have another tool to fight prejudice and patriarchy

Understand what mistakes you are making, but also reinforce positive language use.