'Sexist thinking' as Dear Sir/Madam live on

Letters that begin "Dear Sir/Madam" and references to "Mr and Mrs" are both remnants of "sexist thinking", according to psychologists.

In the written word at least, men still come first – just as they did centuries ago, researchers says today. The claim is supported by the results of scientific studies, they argue. Dr Peter Hegarty, who led a team from the University of Surrey, said: “In the 16th century, naming men before women became the acceptable word order to use because of the thinking that men were the worthier sex.

“This grammar has continued with ‘Mr and Mrs’, ‘his and hers’ and the names of romantic couples like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

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“While the original sexist ideas behind this grammar are no longer accepted, we wanted to investigate whether the sexist habit of male names coming before female names still holds true and the psychological reasons why this might be.” The research is published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

Dr Hegarty said: “The results of our studies suggest that people tend to put men, or male qualities, before women. It would seem that psychologically we are still sexist in writing.”

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