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Gender-inclusive language in product copy: the Romanian part

I recorded the Romanian part of the Gender-Inclusive Language Project, an international effort hosted by UX Content Collective and launched in 2022. This is a summary of the project and of what I covered.

The project

The Gender-Inclusive Language Project brought together content designers who write in gendered languages, where nouns are masculine or feminine. Kinneret Yifrah, author of “UX Writing & Microcopy”, started it, and UX Content Collective hosted it.

According to World Bank research presented in 2019, 38 percent of the world’s population speaks a gendered language as their native tongue. The researchers, Pamela Jakiela and Owen Ozier, analyzed 4,334 languages.

In these languages the masculine form is often the default. Women and non-binary people end up in second place, or left out.

How it worked

One content designer per language explained how gender showed up in that language and its culture. Then they showed writing solutions for style guides, forms and messages.

The project covered 12 languages: English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Spanish. Each one got a video, a slide deck and a transcript. An international guide for teams came with them.

Romanian: where the masculine is the default

Romanian nouns and pronouns have a grammatical gender, and the masculine is the generic one. At the time, words like “user”, “client”, “patient” and “employee” appeared almost only in their masculine form in emails, websites and apps.

In the talk I suggested a quick test. Switch a line to the feminine, as in “create your female client account”, and ask how a man would read it.

Job titles followed the same pattern. Romania’s index of 4,300+ occupations listed about 20 with a feminine form, all tied to traditional female roles.

Forms added another problem. “Sex” and “gender” were used as if they meant the same thing, and almost always as a choice between two options. One form I showed had a field labeled Sex whose menu read Selectează un gen (“Select a gender”).

Each recommendation came with examples from Romanian interfaces. The English in parentheses is a close translation.

  • Rephrase so the sentence needs no gender. First or second person did it, and the copy got more conversational. Utilizator existent (“existing user”, a masculine noun) became Am cont (“I have an account”). Plătitor TVA? (“VAT payer?”) became Plătești TVA? (“Do you pay VAT?”).
  • Include the feminine when space allows. Pagina personală a studentului (“the student’s personal page”, masculine) became Pagina ta de student(ă) (“your student page”, with the feminine ending in parentheses). With more room, name both: Ghidul studentelor și studenților (“the guide for women and men students”).
  • For longer texts, use plural or neutral wording, or speak to the reader directly. Polite forms worked too, though they didn’t suit every product and were harder to scan. Rămâneți conectat? (“Stay signed in?”, in the masculine) became Păstrați autentificarea activă? (“Keep your authentication active?”).
  • Use women’s names or gender-neutral names in placeholder text. Forms suggested ex: Ion or ex: Popescu Alexandru, both men’s names. The alternatives I showed were ex: Ileana Constantin and ex: Rami Ion.
  • Remove the title field, or make it optional. In Romanian forms that field was Formă de adresare, with Dl. (Mr.) and Dna. (Mrs.) as the options.
  • In job ads, name all genders, or at least include the feminine form of the role. Psiholog (“psychologist”, masculine) became Psiholog/Psihologă or Psiholog (M/F/D), where D stands for “diverse”. Romanian has feminine forms for many roles, such as ingineră (engineer), primară (mayor), decană (dean) and bancheră (banker).
  • Describe the job in words that don’t suggest a masculine profile. Ești dornic de afirmare (“you’re eager to prove yourself”, with a masculine adjective) became Îți dorești să te dezvolți (“you want to grow”).
  • Ask for gender only when there’s a reason, such as a legal or medical requirement. If you ask, write “gender”, give options for everyone, and let people skip the question. One example asked Care dintre următoarele genuri te descrie cel mai bine? (“Which of these genders describes you best?”). Its options included Non-binar and Prefer să nu răspund (“I prefer not to answer”).

The shortest version of the talk: where you would write “hello, ladies and gentlemen”, write “hello, everybody”.

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