Why does the language we use for professional occupations really matter?

At its most basic level language helps us communicate our thoughts and opinions with one another and in doing so it dictates how we perceive people, objects and general things in the world. If this is therefore the case then the terms of address we use for different professions will consequently influence who we expect to occupy these roles. For example, if we were to use the occupations of a ‘policeman’ and a ‘chairman’, we would expect a man to occupy these roles because the suffix ‘man’ is present within both of these common nouns. This has therefore sparked a conscious effort to be politically correct by using the following terms; ‘police officer’ and ‘chair person’ to improve the aspirations of both genders.