I see a lot of German job adverts with "(m/w)" after the title:
Web Developer (m/w)
Please could someone tell me what it means?
And also what "(m/f)" means in the same context.
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a guess : man/women ?– audionumaCommented Jun 25, 2016 at 15:04
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2männlich = male weiblich = female– audionumaCommented Jun 25, 2016 at 15:06
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1The same question popped up at the Workplace a while ago, you may want to have a look there.– nvoigtCommented Jun 27, 2016 at 10:05
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1 Answer
m stands for männlich (= male), w stands for weiblich (= female).
Exceptions aside, job advertisements have to be formulated in a gender-neutral way. There are three common ways how to do this:
- Use a term that is gender-neutral (the English term "Web Developer" would work, but the German translation "Webentwickler" not, as it could refer to male web developers only).
- Use the female and the male term (e.g., "Webentwickler / Webentwicklerin").
- Append "(m/w)" to a term that can be understood in a gender-specific way, which then denotes that it refers to both genders (e.g., "Webentwickler (m/w)").
I think "(m/f)" is the English translation for "(m/w)" (i.e., male/female).