On the other hand:
Women and Medieval Guilds There were women in Medieval Guilds. A law called 'femme sole' allowed women to trade in their own right in the case of a widow continuing her husband's craft. The whole family were involved in the Craft Guilds helping the craft guild member who was the head of the family. A wife, daughter or son would work accordingly in the trade of the family. Women were therefore able to take over the trade upon the death of a husband. (see http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/medieval-london-guilds.htm). See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Middle_Ages and http://www.virtualworldlets.net/Papers/Hosted/WomenMed.php. Prof. Philip Daeleader has excellent courses on the Middle Ages with The Teaching Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Daileader). I think the designation master has a long history of gender neutral use. One can even obtain a master degree in gender studies. The term is widely used as an academic qualification (MSc, MA, MBA, etc.) In the arts, particularly music, there are master classes and there is no shortage of women offering or taking such classes. I value the connection with the concept of 'mastery' and thus vote for 'master' as the preferred alternative among those offered to designate this supreme level of competence. Jan -- Jan Visser, Ph.D. President & Sr. Researcher, Learning Development Institute E-mail: [email protected] Check out: http://www.learndev.org and http://www.facebook.com/learndev Blog: http://jvisser-ldi.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Carol Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 12:45 AM To: WikiEducator Subject: [WikiEducator] Nomenclature for WikiMaster Hi all I'm new to this group, so "Hi" to everyone. I co-facilitating the current WikiEducator workshop and I came across the WikiMaster certification. Now I am a great advocate of using gender-neutral terminology. I know that master could be thought of as mastery of a skill/subject but even so the term has a long history of being associate with male activity, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master. With origins in Medieval Guilds which of course were only open to men. I would like to propose that a gender-neutral term be found. For example WikiExpert, Guru, Principal, Champion, Pro, Virtuoso What are your thoughts? Best wishes Carol -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
