A common question to ask yourself would be: is the Spanish language sexist? One point of view is that, depending on the origin of the language one may be more sexist than the other. The other is to say that language is neutral and it is just a way of communicating and that the sexism is put in by the person speaking or listening. When sociologists and philologists have studied the Spanish language they have noticed the clearly sexist and racist traits. Spanish linguist Alfonso Oroz stated “it is language, where with most clarity we can see some of the social reasons that have contributed to the historic undervaluing of women.
There have been many instances where we can see the sexism in the Spanish language. It is enough to look at the language that is used in discussing problems with domestic violence. My other example is a statement made by the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet and she said “debo decir que ésta ha sido una gran discusión en Chile: la señora Presidente o la Presidenta, la señora ministro o ministra. No sé si la Academia estará de acuerdo, pero hemos acordado en Presidenta y ministra”. In the Spanish language there used to be no word in feminine for most occupations and you had to add the word woman (señora) before the occupation.
Another example of the sexism in Spanish is the fact that, when referring to a group of men and women, you use the masculine form of the word, making women appear invisible. Thiis is the debate that raises the most controversy, to make women visible in syntax. The problem with this is the very word you are using to get rid of sexism in language. Visibilizar (to make visible) defined by the RAE’s dictionary is: to artificially make visible something that otherwise would not be seen. Doesn’t putting so much emphasis on “making women visible” seem like they are giving them an artificial place in the mind of Spanish speakers? But just by doing this you can’t fix the problem of sexism.
In retrospect, I believe that yes, the Spanish language was product of a sexist society, but nowadays it is just a language. The sexism that can be interpreted from those words are because the speaker wishes to convey it through his words or the listener understands it as something sexist and changing the language is not going to change the fact that there is sexism in Spain.
