Quick recap. Generic masculine forms are theoretically neutral (in French you can use "les musiciens" to refer to male and female musicians), but empirical studies show that when we read "les musiciens", our brains default to a masculine interpretation, and only later adjust to include women. (2/10)
One possible solution is gender-fair writing. In a previous study, we tested whether gender-unmarked forms (such as "l'athlète", which can be masculine or feminine) or middle dot forms efficiently reduce the masculine bias observed in generic masculine forms. (3/10)
Surprisingly, the results indicate that masculine hybrid nouns (such as "un être humain", "un nouveau-né", "un ange") introduced a masculine bias during reading, while feminine hybrid nouns (such as "une personne", "une vedette", "une recrue") did not! (7/10)
