Today celebrates the achievements made by women which have been globally celebrated since the early 1900s, with the United Nations celebrating International Women’s Day for the first time in 1975.
In this blog, we take a look at how this ties into the translation profession and what the proportion of male to female translators looks like.
From our findings, we can see that the translation industry is generally female-oriented. But why is this?
Translation is an arts and humanities-based discipline and typically we see more women in these types of roles, with more male employees found in STEM-related professions. This is a similar situation in schools, where female students often perform better in subjects such as English and foreign languages.
Furthermore, freelance translation is a flexible role meaning the linguist is able to work from home, choosing which projects to take on according to their availability. This means that both men and women are able to fit their job around their life, which is particularly useful for those with children. This allows workers to commit to their job fully without feeling like their professional development will be restricted by their family life.
Another benefit of working from home is that the translation recruitment process is usually completed online and via email. As the translation industry fights to make sure that only the best translators are used, recruitment is subject to the translator holding certain qualifications and being a member of recognised institutional bodies such as CIOL and ITI. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that a translator will be assessed based on their gender.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #BalanceforBetter to help promote a gender-balanced world.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day
