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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Miranda Bryant in Stockholm

DARK SECRETS: Danish dictionary to weed out gender stereotypes | Vintage Vibes

People sit outside cafes in Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Danes enjoying the fine weather by the Nyhavn Canal in Copenhagen. Linguists are updating the national dictionary to make it more gender neutral. Photograph: AGF Srl/Alamy

The Danish language does not officially carry a male equivalent for the (often pejorative) term “career woman” or a female equivalent for the male-gendered noun “financier”.

But after a major review of all keywords ending in -mand (man), -kvinde (woman) and -person (person), soon the terms karrieremand (career man) and finanskvinde (female financier) – as well as many new gender-neutral terms – will officially join the ranks of the Danish spelling dictionary, the Retskrivningsordbogen.

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