Science shows: Gender-appropriate language is simple and easy to understand

Students, students or university students – these are all different forms of gender-inclusive language. They ensure that not only the men in the lecture hall but, if possible, everyone feels addressed. Not that complicated – you might think. And yet in many texts only the masculine form is used. The media consciously decides against gendering because it supposedly makes texts illegible. But also because hardly any topic is discussed as emotionally as gender. According to opinion polls, around two thirds of Germans eligible to vote reject gender-appropriate language.

The gender asterisk not only separates the female from the male ending, but also the “woke bubble” from the “boomers”. While some see an opportunity to accurately portray gender relations, others see it as unnecessary and even harmful. Because one of their favorite arguments is: Gender is so complicated and makes our language incomprehensible. But is that actually true? No, says a new study by the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim.

The researchers examined a large number of press releases from magazines, newspapers and news agencies. They looked at where the texts needed to be changed to make them gender-inclusive.

The experts' conclusion: You can formulate gender-inclusively and understandably with little effort - at least in press releases. According to this, on average less than every hundredth word needs to be changed. A large part of these changes do not even make the texts longer, because instead of teacher or researcher you can easily use gender-neutral terms such as teacher or researcher.

“This low proportion raises the question of whether gender-inclusive language can represent a significant obstacle to understanding and learning the German language,” explains Carolin Müller-Spitzer, head of the Leibniz Institute. “Especially when you take into account that the interpretation of generic masculine characters is not always clear.”

This is not the first time that a study has shown that gender-inclusive language is easy to understand. School books, travel guides and leaflets have also been examined - all of these studies come to a similar result.

Researchers at the Technical University in Braunschweig have also looked into the comprehensibility of gender-inclusive texts. They divided 350 students into two groups and presented them with a contract from a German electricity provider - in two different versions. One group was supposed to read the contract, which was only written in the masculine form and addressed the readers as “customers” and “account holders”. The other group received the text as a gender-inclusive version. The result: The texts were equally understandable for both groups.

Language debates are often very emotional. But studies like this help to look at the whole thing on a more objective level. The effects of language have now also been very well researched. It has been proven that languages ​​that are more gender-neutral can ensure that people think more openly about gender roles.

Linguistic researchers and experts therefore clearly speak out in favor of gender. But research also shows that people initially perceive language change negatively. It gets better over time, because words that are initially unfamiliar and therefore tiring become easier for the brain the more you use them. Everyone can still decide for themselves whether they ultimately want to include gender in language usage.