Universities reject order calling for masculine form only

Several Israeli universities have announced that they will not comply with a new civil service directive that would oblige them to scrap the practice of using masculine-feminine suffixes when publishing job tenders and employ only the masculine form, reports The Times of Israel.

Hebrew nouns are gendered, with the word changing form to indicate whether it is masculine or feminine. When addressing mixed-gender groups, usage traditionally defaults to the masculine form. To boost gender equality, many have taken to including both the masculine and feminine forms of the word, using a slash mark to include both. (A roughly analogous usage in English would be a restaurant job posting for a ‘waiter/ress’, but without the anachronistic flavour.)

The directive, published last week by Civil Service Commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz, cited the Hebrew Language Academy in stating that “the masculine form is also used as a neutral, non-gendered form”. It also stated that using masculine-feminine suffixes is “cumbersome and can make reading more difficult”. He added that tenders would note that the use of the masculine form was due to linguistic accuracy, and that both male and female applicants are welcome to apply.
Full report on The Times of Israel site