Can women be firemen or mailmen?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Women can be anything that they want to be.

The question is about linguistics, not gender roles, but I think this is still the right answer: Call any given woman in one of these types of positions what she'd prefer to be called, if she expresses a preference.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Women can be anything that they want to be.

The question is about linguistics, not gender roles, but I think this is still the right answer: Call any given woman in one of these types of positions what she'd prefer to be called, if she expresses a preference.

I mean if a woman calls herself a "poetess" then I suppose I would go along but I'm speaking in general terms. And we are trying to get to of the essence of the word- practice would follow convention, that is, a woman might elect to call herself a "chairperson" because she believe the word "chairman" to be gendered- but would that be correct?

My first instinct would be to say no, that would not in my view be correct, but I'm not enough of a prescriptivist to be particularly concerned over it.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Chairman is gendered, yes. I have never in any setting seen a woman referred to as a chairman, always a "chair."

I'm pretty sure Barbara Mikulski prefers 'Chairman'.