Comparative Analysis of Public Perception of Feminine Forms Denoting Professions in Russia and Spain

The article is dedicated to a comparative analysis of the perception and use of feminized forms by society in Russia and Spain. The author claims that the process of incorporating this linguistic phenomenon directly depends on the society and culture of each country. While both languages provide tools for modifying existing words or creating new ones, this does not guarantee their effective usage. The study focuses on survey results regarding the use of 20 feminine forms in Russian and 20 words in Spanish, involving 105 Russian-speaking and 105 Spanish-speaking participants. As a result, it is established that the Russian language and the Spanish language possess different mechanisms for the formation of feminine gender-specific job titles. The Russian language has a greater number of morphological resources capable of participating in the word formation of this lexical category compared to Spanish. The most effective methods are affixation, which has a wide range of word-forming suffixes, substantiation, and word compounding. In Spanish, the most productive method is the replacement of masculine endings with feminine endings. Despite the morphological limitations, Spanish society integrates this lexicon more swiftly into official discourse and promotes its usage at the national level through the distribution of special literature in public organizations, which is obligatory. In contrast, in Russia, despite progress in this area, the population remains more conservative, continuing to use masculine forms as gender-neutral.