Gender-neutral language

Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids bias towards a particular sex or social gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, as well as avoidance of the pronouns he, him and his to refer to people of unknown or indeterminate gender.[1] For example, the words policeman[2][3] and stewardess[4][5] are gender-specific job titles; the corresponding gender-neutral terms are police officer[6][7] and flight attendant.[8][9] Other gender-specific terms, such as actor and actress, may be replaced by the originally male term; for example, actor used regardless of gender.[10][11][12] Some terms, such as chairman,[13][14] that contain the component -man but have traditionally been used to refer to persons regardless of sex are now seen by some as gender-specific.[15] When the gender of the person referred to is unknown or indeterminate, the third-person pronoun he may be avoided by using gender-neutral alternatives – possibilities in English include singular they, he or she, or s/he.

Sign with specific suggestions for gender-neutral language use in Spanish.

Terminology and views

General

Historically, the use of masculine pronouns in place of generic was regarded as non-sexist, but various forms of gender-neutral language became a common feature in written and spoken versions of many languages in the late twentieth century. Feminists argue that previously the practice of assigning masculine gender to generic antecedents stemmed from language reflecting "the prejudices of the society in which it evolved, and English evolved through most of its history in a male-centered, patriarchal society."[16] During the 1970s, feminists Casey Miller and Kate Swift created a manual, The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing, on gender neutral language that was set to reform the existing sexist language that was said to exclude and dehumanize women.[17] In the 1980s, many feminist efforts were made to reform the androcentric language.[18] It has become common in some academic and governmental settings to rely on gender-neutral language to convey inclusion of all sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language).[19][20]

Various languages employ different means to achieve gender neutrality:

Other particular issues are also discussed:

Gender marking in job titles
Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns

Gender indication

There are different approaches in forming a "gender-neutral language":

Neutralising any reference to gender or sex, like using "they" as a 3rd person singular pronoun instead of "he" or "she", and proscribing words like actress (female actor) and prescribing the use of words like actor for persons of any gender. Although it has generally been accepted in the English language, some argue that using "they" as a singular pronoun is considered grammatically incorrect, but acceptable in informal writing.[21]
Indicating the gender by using wordings like "he or she" and "actors and actresses".
Avoiding the use of "him/her" or the third person singular pronoun "they" by using "the" or restructuring the sentence all together to avoid all three.[21]
NASA now prefers the use of "crewed" and "uncrewed" instead of "manned" and "unmanned", including when discussing historical spaceflight (except proper nouns).[22]

Examples of gender indication in occupational titles[23]
Gendered title	Gender-neutral title
businessman, businesswoman	business person/person in business, business people/people in business
chairman, chairwoman	chair, chairperson
mailman, mailwoman, postman, postwoman	mail carrier, letter carrier, postal worker
policeman, policewoman	police officer
salesman, saleswoman	salesperson, sales associate, salesclerk, sales executive
steward, stewardess	flight attendant
waiter, waitress	server, table attendant, waitron
fireman, firewoman	firefighter
barman, barwoman	bartender

gollark: As a fun feature, it entirely ignores whitespace.

gollark: osmarkscalculator™ is implemented as fairly nonidiomatic Rust.

gollark: The main issue is that the pattern matcher is very quirky and unreliable. So I'm adding even more features.

gollark: It's somewhat working and implemented.

gollark: I fear osmarkscalculator™ more, really.

Gender-neutral language

Terminology and views

General

Gender indication

See also

In specific languages

Related topics

References

Further reading