Reflections on the so-called inclusive language in the parliamentary administration. Tools and recommendations for writing non-sexist texts

Abstract

On March 6, 2020, Congress of Deputies and Senate´s Bureaus, in a joint meeting, approved the first Equality Plan of the Spanish Parliament. Structured in eight axes, the last one "is aimed at facilitating the use of non-sexist language in communication and in documents that are produced in both Houses". In accordance with this objective, the Plan foresees the elaboration of a “guide for the non-sexist use of language and communication within the scope of the Parliamentary administration, which will allow the use of criteria that includes a gender perspective in the Houses´ communication and in the administrative documents that they generate”. This work, developed during the writing of the aforementioned Guide, reflects on the need of having tools that guarantee non-discrimination of women in the administrative language, through a linguistic analysis of the possibilities that the Spanish language provides for speakers not to fall into sexist practices and, at the same time, keeping, as the Royal Spanish Academy says in its Statutes, "the genius of the language itself”.