How PR deals with gender-appropriate language

The dpa subsidiary asked media outlets and PR agencies in Switzerland how they deal with gender-appropriate language in communications for their company or for their clients. 92 communicators took part in the survey.

Express equality

According to the survey, the vast majority of PR professionals use neutral language to express gender equality. A full 70 percent therefore use terms such as "employees" or "students". Still, well over half of the respondents write out the masculine and feminine forms, for example, by referring to "employees" or "students" (60 percent). Again, a third of respondents do not apply any uniform rules in their use of language (32 percent).

Internal spelling and gender asterisks less common

Less common are all indented spellings: Only one in five media offices and PR agencies uses the slash or bracket notation and writes, for example, "Mitarbeiter/innen" or "Mitarbeiter(innen)" (21 percent). Just as many respondents adhere to the so-called indented I by writing employees or students (21 percent). The gender asterisk is even rarer. Only 13 percent use the special character - for example, in the word Mitarbeiter*innen - in order to formulate in a gender-appropriate way. The underscore is not used at all by PR professionals (for example, Mitarbeiter_innen). Three percent of media and PR agencies do not use gender at all.

The results at a glance

• Formulate gender neutral: 70%
• Write out male and female form: 60%
• No uniform regulation: 32%
• Bracket/slash notation: 21%
• Internal I: 21% Gender asterisk: 13%
• Underline: 0%
• "We don't practice gender-responsive language": 3%