The masculine bias in fully gendered languages and ways to avoid it: A study on gender neutral forms in Québec and Swiss French

ABSTRACT The extent to which gender neutral and gendered nouns impact differently upon native French speakers’ representations was examined through a yes-no forced choice task. Swiss (Experiment 1) Québec 2) French-speaking participants were presented with word pairs composed of first name (e.g., Thomas) role doctor), tasked indicate whether they believed that [first name] could be one the [role]. Roles varied according stereotypicality (feminine, masculine, non-stereotyped), either in plural masculine (interpretable as generic) or (epicenes group nouns) form. results indicated use forms roles avoided strong male bias found for forms, both used equal cognitive resources. Further, stereotype effects associated gender-neutral grammatically quite small (<1%). These highly reliable across speakers. Our study suggests are alternatives form default value.