J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam & ElaN: The button that turns firemen into firefighters & mailmen into mail carriers

The words we use directly affect the way we think. A lot of research has shown that. And whether we notice it or not, our language is infused with countless gender-biased words. A 2017 sociolinguistic study on the influence of language concluded that “language appears to play a particularly important role in forming people’s attitudes toward gender and occupation”.

Would a woman be likely to think that a cameraman, mailman, fireman or salesman is the right job for her?

International Women’s Day 2019’s theme is #BalanceforBetter. If unconscious bias is still affecting career decisions, balance won’t come easily.

So J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam and ELaN Languages, an independent translation organisation in Belgium, are tacking unconscious bias by changing the words we use. They have updated ELaN’s online translation tool with a new feature, the unbias button.

The new plug-in offers unbiased translations of bias words, such as job titles, making people aware of unconscious bias. Fireman becomes fire fighter, mailman becomes mail carrier. And the reverse is also true, with midwife becoming birth assistant. Thousands of biased words in the ElaN Languages database receive an unbiased translation into English, when the unbias button is applied.

“As a translation, language and communication training partner, we are a strong proponent of gender-neutral language so that all readers can relate to the texts in front of them: men, women, and people who don’t identify with either of these. Our unbias button ties in seamlessly with our mission: helping people to understand one another better and thus creating a sense of belonging,” stated Robrecht Belien, ElaN Languages chief executive officer.

“We’ve been working with ElaN Languages for a few years now, and they’ve always been at the forefront of what translation means in the lives of people. That importance shines through in this new idea, for which ElaN adapted their online product. A fundamental change, which they felt was urgently needed to help achieve a gender-balanced world,” added Bas Korsten, creative partner, J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam

To inspire change throughout the translation business, ELaN will make this extensive database of gender-neutral words available to the giants of this industry such as Google Translate and iTranslate and Yandex Translate.