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It seems to me that in my lifetime, the use of "actress" has fallen out of favor in lieu of "actor", while relatively recently the term "comedienne" has been climbing in popularity. These blog posts seem to confirm my perception: "actress" and "comedienne".

I wonder, in the present day, what nouns for jobs or vocations today are still gendered?

user1359
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  • Gender-specific "actress" has probably only fallen out of favor with a few high-profile movie stars. I doubt total usage of *actress* relative to *actor* has significantly changed. The reason we see *comedienne* far more often in recent decades is probably just because there are far more female comics today than there once were. But as to which other gendered terms "remain" in use, I think that's largely a matter of opinion (it would be difficult to know whether there are now more of the female referent in any given case). – FumbleFingers Jan 21 '16 at 17:26
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    @FumbleFingers do you have a source? I know of at least one local theater company where all of their players are referred to as actors (and they have women in their company). – user1359 Jan 21 '16 at 17:46
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    In total, not much has changed re the prevalence of actress over the past century, but comedienne has gained significant traction. Even if all usages "within the trade" changed, they'd represent only a tiny fraction of total usages. – FumbleFingers Jan 21 '16 at 17:54
  • @FumbleFingers You need to compare with a total actor vs actress (actor rises, so actress is relatively decreasing), comedian vs comedienne (little relative difference, but -enne slightly increasing). Also, I think Google's corpus of books is biased away from the situation the OP cares about. – Mitch Mar 22 '16 at 15:10
  • @Mitch: I just came across she is professor emerita** last night, which struck me as slightly odd (Google Books "guestimates" suggest she is professor emeritus** is over twice as common). But who could say whether the "gender-correct" (but effectively "non-standard") version reflects pedantry, or an ideologically-motivated plug for "feminism in academia", in any given case? – FumbleFingers Mar 22 '16 at 16:26
  • @FumbleFingers I'm leaning towards 'pedantry'. – Mitch Mar 22 '16 at 16:42
  • @Mitch: Haha - I lean towards '[misguided] plug for the feminist perspective'. Context may make a difference, but it essentially it strikes me as a kind of 'inverse egalitarianism', as when people (usually somewhat facetiously) refer to God as "She" mainly because they don't like the historical baggage of the masculine form, rather than because they really think of the referent as having a gender (but it almost borders on blasphemy to refer to the Christian God as "It"). – FumbleFingers Mar 22 '16 at 17:16

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I think waitress and hostess in the service industry still happens although the neutral "server" is the predominant descriptor from my experience in Canada now. Sometimes I hear a gendered statement on other vocations - but more often to describe a man in a role more commonly associated with women. Male nurse or male model is not uncommon for example.

But beyond that - English is pretty gender neutral on jobs descriptions these days.

Michael Broughton
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    "...is the predominant descriptor now" in the United States or Canada perhaps? It's not common in BrE, which maintains the distinction. – Andrew Leach Jan 21 '16 at 17:37
  • edited to specify locale. Thanks for pointing that out. – Michael Broughton Jan 21 '16 at 18:48
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    Phrases such as "my brother is a male nurse" or "my sister is a lady vicar" are still heard; although obviously the gender of my brother or sister is already clear,. – davidlol Feb 21 '16 at 01:29
  • I suppose also the monarch (of Canada, UK etc) would be refereed to as Queen or King rather than monarch – davidlol Feb 21 '16 at 01:38
  • barman and barmaid are common, though some say bar tender. – davidlol Feb 21 '16 at 09:07
  • Milkman and milkmaid are different roles, he delivers milk whereas she milks cows. What ia a female milk deliverer, or a male milker called?. – davidlol Feb 21 '16 at 09:08
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'Ballerina' comes to mind, although ballet dancer would also do.

Pablo Straub
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