The official guardians of the French language ended centuries of male linguistic dominance Thursday by allowing feminine words for all professions, reports FRANCE 24.
The notoriously conservative Academie Française, which polices the language and has long resisted change, said there was now "no obstacle in principle" to the wholesale feminisation of job titles.
French women doctors could soon be referred to as "docteures" and teachers as "professeures" in its official dictionary, which currently lists "presidente" as the wife of a head of state rather than a female leader of a country.
Despite more than half a century of feminism, the language of French working life has remained resolutely male.
Most jobs titles are automatically masculine, apart from a few notable exceptions such as nurse and child-minder.
The male-dominated Academie had previously fiercely opposed change, branding attempts at "inclusive writing" in government documents as an "aberration" that put French "in mortal danger".
And it found a powerful ally in prime minister Édouard Philippe, a sometime novelist who has called for a clampdown on bids to make French more female-friendly.
He insisted last year that the "masculine (form) is a neutral form which should be used for terms liable to apply to women".