Is Software Craftsmanship too gender specific?
The term Software Craftsmanship has really gotten a lot of attention lately; the majority of this attention was from people promoting the believes behind it. Pushing to make our industry more mature; in my opinion a push that is long overdue.
But there is an objection to the gender specific nature of the word “Craftsman” or “Craftsmanship”, personally I am not bothered with it, perhaps this is because I am a man or because I am not a native English speaker? When I hear the word Craftsman I think about the discipline and not whether we speak about a man or a woman. But because some people don’t appreciate the wording we should put some more thoughts into finding an alternative.
Victoria suggests using the word “Codesmith” instead, I looked up the definition of “Smith” and found one that made me laugh; “To beat into shape, to forge (3)” this would actually apply to many practicing our trade, but surely it is not the same meaning that stands behind craftsmanship: “Skill in an occupation or trade”. I found one other definition of Smith: “One who makes or works at something specified (3)”. It is often used in combination; a locksmith, a wordsmith. So in that light Codesmith would work. But as Dave Hoover says as well code is to limiting in the world of software development. Software Craftsmanship is much more then just code. Also Codesmith basically only tells something about the type of work the person does, nothing about the disipline and skills of the person.
Loosing the gender in Craftsmanship might actually be quit easy we could just use “Craftship” instead, but this will not work for Craftsman. An other alternative I found was “Mastery” and this might actually work in both cases; Software Mastery and Software Master. It does get a bit confusing when we are talking about the different levels within Craftsmanship; Apprentice, Journeyman and Master.
The problem with creating new words is that in the beginning they will almost always sounds funny or weird, think for example of “Googling”. But I do think that if we would try to find a new word for Craftsman and Craftsmanship that we should do so outside the software industry so that it will be recognized by any trade.
And this for me personally could mean that I have to think about the title of the book that I am working on “The Software Craftsman”.
I have used the term “Artison”.
I believe a much simpler solution would be to gradually change the meaning of the word ‘man’ (in our heads) to mean ‘people’, much like ‘guy’ has lost its gender (and its original meaning) and is now used for girls too (especially in its plural form). Really, when one says craftsman, he doesn’t necessarily think of a guy with a beard and big muscles. He (or she) focuses on the crafts- part, with -man indicating a person, rather than a crafts-dog or crafts-plant. If there’s no intention on specifying gender, then no harm is done and correction is not needed.
Maybe kids should be taught to use he/man/etc when either referring to males or persons of unspecified gender. And use feminine versions of the words (she/woman/etc) when specifically indicating a female person.
If the change becomes official then there will be no ground for anyone to get offended. “No offense woman. I was using it in a genderless fashion”.