Custodians of the French language are reportedly on the verge of enacting a linguistic “revolution” by finally accepting that job titles take the feminine form.

For centuries, members of the hallowed Académie Française - created in 1635 to "fix the French language, giving it rules, rendering it pure and comprehensible by all” - had refused to accept that words such as “professeur” (teacher) or ingénieur (engineer) be made “professeure” or “ingénieure” for women.

“The Immortals”, as académiciens are known, had repeatedly argued that to add an “e” to such male titles would “end up with proposals that are contrary to the spirit of the language”.

The cause appeared lost when Hélène Carrère d’Encausse became the Académie's first ever female perpetual secretary in 1999 and announced she would be referred to as “Madame le secrétaire perpetuel”, in the masculine form. She also opposed “la ministre” (a female minister), preferring “Madame le ministre”. The argument was that gender had nothing to do with job title.