Can gender-fair language modify vocational representations? Assessing the impact of grammatical form and stereotypes on adolescents’ perceived warmth, perceived competence, and anticipated sense of belonging for different occupations

In recent years, the use of gender-fair language in grammatical gender languages like French has been increasingly encouraged to counteract cognitive biases that arise when the grammatical masculine is used as a generic. Yet little is known about how these language forms affect adolescents for whom vocational interests are still developing. Under this pretext, this study investigates how the use of grammatical masculine and pair forms to describe gender-stereotypical occupations influences adolescents’ vocational representations. Across two preregistered experiments, French-speaking adolescents evaluated perceived warmth, perceived competence, and their anticipated sense of belonging to gender-stereotypical occupations presented in either the masculine or pair forms. Contrary to previous findings among adults, the pair form did not lead to more inclusive perceptions among adolescents. Instead, gender stereotypes associated with the occupation emerged as a primary source for gender representation, especially for girls. Importantly, the effects varied according to adolescents’ gender and age. The implications are discussed in the context of gender-related beliefs and vocational representations.