Are there any issues with sexism in the Japanese language?


The only example I can think of/that I know of at the moment that has ever
been of controversy with regard to sexism in Japanese was the change from 看護婦
to 看護師. I'm sure there are probably many more cases like this. I also see a
lot of words with kanji that seem more or less degrading to women, but I'm not
sure that this is what I'm going for with the question. Rather I'm looking for
something more ingrained, more structural _that has been a source of
controversy_ in the past. Vocabulary or kanji could fall into this category as
well, but I'm not looking for an exhaustive listing of words or expressions
that could be considered sexist. Rather I want to know what is and has been
considered sexist in Japanese by Japanese people.

As an example in English there is notably no gender neutral third person
pronoun, so words like "man" and "he" are the norm while other more equal
words either don't exist or aren't used as widely in situations where gendered
speech has been traditionally used.

Does Japanese have these kinds of issues, and if so what are they?




I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but in the workplace there was a law
passed:
[雇用の分野における男女の均等な機会及び待遇の確保等に関する法律](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%87%E7%94%A8%E3%81%AE%E5%88%86%E9%87%8E%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E7%94%B7%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E5%9D%87%E7%AD%89%E3%81%AA%E6%A9%9F%E4%BC%9A%E5%8F%8A%E3%81%B3%E5%BE%85%E9%81%87%E3%81%AE%E7%A2%BA%E4%BF%9D%E7%AD%89%E3%81%AB%E9%96%A2%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E6%B3%95%E5%BE%8B)
which changed a lot of the words for women in the workplace (your example is
one of them). The wikipedia article also gives some other examples:

[code]

    「婦人警察官」→「女性警察官」（募集の際は単に警察官）
    「営業マン」→「営業職」
    「保母」→「保育士」
    「スチュワーデス」→「客室乗務員」
    
[/code]

There are also controversial terms for husband and wife: 亭主、主人、奥さん、家内

They are still used a lot in everyday speech, but I believe there are
restrictions on using them in the media.

Other examples:

未亡人、帰国子女、入籍する

There are also controversy with some Kanji characters:

嫁、嬲る、etc.




I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but in the workplace there was a law
passed:
[雇用の分野における男女の均等な機会及び待遇の確保等に関する法律](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%87%E7%94%A8%E3%81%AE%E5%88%86%E9%87%8E%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E7%94%B7%E5%A5%B3%E3%81%AE%E5%9D%87%E7%AD%89%E3%81%AA%E6%A9%9F%E4%BC%9A%E5%8F%8A%E3%81%B3%E5%BE%85%E9%81%87%E3%81%AE%E7%A2%BA%E4%BF%9D%E7%AD%89%E3%81%AB%E9%96%A2%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E6%B3%95%E5%BE%8B)
which changed a lot of the words for women in the workplace (your example is
one of them). The wikipedia article also gives some other examples:

[code]

    「婦人警察官」→「女性警察官」（募集の際は単に警察官）
    「営業マン」→「営業職」
    「保母」→「保育士」
    「スチュワーデス」→「客室乗務員」
    
[/code]

There are also controversial terms for husband and wife: 亭主、主人、奥さん、家内

They are still used a lot in everyday speech, but I believe there are
restrictions on using them in the media.

Other examples:

未亡人、帰国子女、入籍する

There are also controversy with some Kanji characters:

嫁、嬲る、etc.

