In the days before such forms were considered sexist, politically incorrect etc, what was the feminine form of editor? I was taught at school that editress was the appropriate form - along the lines of authoress, poetess, actress. On the weekend though I read an article reprinted from an American newspaper and it used the form editrix, which I’ve never seen before, although it makes sense in a way too (cf aviator/aviatrix and the legal terms testator/testatrix and executor/executrix).
For what it’s worth, in French it’s “éditrice”. (And French insists on giving gender to occupational titles, so you have to use that for an editor who happens to be a woman.)
I’ve had more editors than I can remember anymore, and almost all of them have been female. To my mind “editor” is female, and we should be asking what the male form is.
I always learned “editrix”, but I’d never call her anything but an editor. On the other hand, calling a female movie star an “actor” feels a little weird to me for some reason.
I’m in the midwest US, and I’ve never seen the feminine form of “editor” used anywhere. I’m 56. Lady editors are editors. “Jewess” and “Negress” fell out of fashion long ago, and “actress” is slowly fading. “Tailor” has mostly replaced “seamstress.” I could drag this out further, but it looks risky.
The distinction between “actor” and “actress” used to bother me, until I realized there really is a rather important difference. There is no reason why you wouldn’t hire an editrix to do an editor’s job, but you generally wouldn’t hire an actress to do an actor’s job (or vice-versa).
I am weird, but I’ve always kind of liked those “-trix” endings. Of course, when I take over the world, I’m planning to have “Dictatrix” be my official title.
Oddly enough, while I can see the point with actor/actress, I call the lady who brings me dinner a “waitress”, not a “waiter”. If I wanted to be gender neutral I’d say “server”, I guess, but generally I just say “waitress”.
Minor nitpick: not all actors belong to SAG–only screen actors.
As to your point, SAG still makes a distinction between male and female actors, they just make it such–male and female actors. The point is: there’s a difference, however you choose to phrase it.