when to add femme and homme

[Yan Fang]

For professions such as médicin and politique, we would indicate un homme médicin/un homme politique and une femme médicin/une femme médicin. Is it correct to assume that we add "femme" and "homme" when the profession does not have 2 different words for both genders (unlike musicien and musicienne)?

However, why is it that it is just un journaliste and une journaliste and that "femme" & "homme" does not have to be added?

When exactly do we have to add "femme"/"hemme"? Will it be wrong if we just write un médicin/une médicin?

 

Thanks!

[Erwan]

It's a big debate. For few years now, you have been able to say une médecin (be careful of your spelling :) ), une professeur. But we seldom say it.It's not a mistake to say une femme médecin but we never say une femme professeur or un homme médecin.

 

Many professions have a masculine and a feminine word, a few have the same word (and for those we sometimes add femme for a woman).

We will say un homme/ une femme politique for a polititian. It's something to know. There are really few professions which need homme/femme before.