On Feb 23, 2014, at 8:41 AM, Patrik Fältström <paf(_at_)frobbit(_dot_)se> wrote:
"ombudsman" has in Swedish nothing to do with gender of the person
having that role, but if people do feel it has gender connotation, use a
completely different word.
This was a common theme in feminist discourse in the previous century in the
U.S. as well, but I think the consensus at this point is that "man" really does
have a masculine connotation at least in english.
We've also seen a trend toward the elimination of the -ess suffix, for example
serious female actors are no longer referred to as actresses. So possibly a
-or word might be a better choice, if we could come up with one.
I vote for "auror": someone who listens, notwithstanding the different meaning
in the Harry Potter books.