abogado / abogada

Question

Hello,
I am studying a simple conversation.

Maria - ¿ A qué te dedicas?
Juana - Yo soy abogada y tambien estudiante de español. Y tu, ¿tambien eres abogado?

I dont understand why did Juana said abogado (we shall say "abogada" to a female lawyer right')

Gracias
Giti

Answer 1

(policía)

There are several hundred feminine words in Spanish that don't change when they are applied to men. Policía comes from "politia", and "persona" from "persona", both Latin, but most of them are usually greek:

Un(a) atleta
Un(a) artista
Un(a) poeta
Un(a) anarquista
Un(a) idiota
Un(a) pacifista
Un(a) comunista
Un(a) finalista
Un(a) fascista
Un(a) idealista

Answer 2

And let's not forget the other side: policia

Un policia
Una policia

And, of course, la policia (the police in general).

Answer 3

I assume that the opinion of a teacher can't be discuseed, but although I have lived all my life in Spain I am not used to hear the word "médica"( I doubt if I have ever heard it). When the doctor is a woman she is usually called "doctora", not to say always (I live in Barcelona, maybe we are another and different world).
An I have heard very often "jueza".

Answer 4

Oh muchas gracias!
Giti

Answer 5

Traditionally, "médico" was the same for both genders, but nowadays "médica" is commonly used, along with the traditional fixed form for two genders that so many people have been using all their lives. After all, "médico/a" can be used as an adjective, and you must say "profesíon médica" (not "médico"), so it is not so strange that people change the ending for women. Some books even recommend avoiding "médico" for women, but it is what many people were taught at schools when they were young, so it is a bit of a problem.

"Juez" is another story, because unlike the "-o/-a" ending, there is no reason why words ending in -z should change to "-za" for the feminine. You don't say "mujer feliza/eficaza/audaza/fugaza/soeza/...", like many other hundreds of words in Spanish where the ending is fixed for both genders. Generally it is recommended not to add an "-a".

Answer 6

We can say too "abogado" to refer a female lawyer. "Abogado" is neutral, as are many professions names in masculine. For example it exists "medico" for both men and women, but not "medica".

Answer 7

HI Giti, there is a lot of controversy about trying to "find equality" with words which originally only had one gender, like : juez, abogado,

In my humble opinion a lot of nonsense, as if we want to have equality for everybody, we need to change some words then: futbolisto for example.

So a woman lawyer would call herself abogado or abogada, quite the same.