APPLYING EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICIES TO THE WRITING OF COURSE GUIDES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CASTILLA-LA MANCHA (SPAIN)

Abstract

Spanish society’s growing awareness of sexism is reflected in different spheres. Among them, egalitarian language has recently become a polarised debate, the extremes of which are the normative and sociolinguistic positions. Given the need to adopt a more nuanced view of the relationship between grammatical gender and sexism (Escandell-Vidal, 2020), after defining the relationship between sex, grammatical gender and sociocultural gender, this article sets out the normative and sociolinguistic arguments regarding generic masculine in Spanish. It also explores the evolution of proposals such as the neuter morpheme -e. Arguments are presented in favour of the suitability of the course guide to comply with the legal framework that establishes both the use of egalitarian language and the defence of equality and diversity at UCLM. Some complementary guidelines and materials to the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE)’s Recommendations for the Appropriate Use of Language in Universities and the UCLM's Guidelines for non-sexist language are provided. Finally, a checklist applicable to any course guide for compliance with current equality regulations is proposed. Beyond language, it includes suggestions for sections such as competences and bibliography.