Result: Chapter La femminilizzazione dei nomi di professione e di cariche. Un problema recente?

In the ongoing debates about the feminization of professional titles and positions, one argument against it suggests that the "demand"; to feminize such titles, when attributed to women, is a recent phenomenon that contrasts with the thousand-year history of italian language. In reality, the feminization of professional titles follows a general rule of gender distinction in Italian. It has only been strongly challenged in recent decades and primarily with regard to professions associated with prestige or considered prestigious. For example, in the musical field, the legitimacy of direttrice d’orchestra as a feminine form is debated, whereas names like pianista, violinista, and clarinettista are not similarly contested. From a historical perspective, despite the limited evidence due to the underrepresentation of women in prestigious professions until recent times, feminization has been documented in some cases as early as the fourteenth century. An intriguing source that confirms the existence of feminine forms for a wide range of trades (and professions) that were historically male-dominated is the General Population Census of 1901. This contribution explores and discusses some of the feminine forms documented in texts of the past.