About a year ago, I sent out a list of gender-neutral job titles (Editor’s Corner – July 19, 2013). While researching a question from one of you about non-neutral titles, I ended up at the same resource I used before. Today I’m going to give you another taste of the gender neutral version of some titles and terms. I have to say that the neutral terms take some of the pizzazz out of the original term; but when you want to be safe from offending someone, you should consider the terms on this list. Here are a few terms I selected for you from Writing Help Central. I can’t imagine the folks in our Human Resources battle with these titles and terms too often.
| Instead of this… | Use this… | Kara’s Comments |
| brotherly love | charity, good will | Welcome to Philadelphia—the City of Charity and Good Will! |
| frog man | diver | I can’t say I’ve ever heard people refer to divers as frog men, but as far as “job titles” go, frog man (or frog woman) sounds much cooler to me than diver. |
| henchman | partner in crime | This is one of those where “King Geoffrey’s henchmen kidnapped Lady Guinevere from the stagecoach” sounds much more menacing than “King Geoffrey’s partners in crime…” |
| gunman | shooter, killer, assassin | I just want to note that this guy’s web site (Shaun Fawcett’s Writing Help Central) lists about five different gender specific “job titles” for a hit man, followed by a hardy assortment of gender neutral terms. |
| jack-of-all-trades | handyperson | Suddenly the saying “I’m a jack-of-all-trades, master of none” loses its oomph in “translation”: “I’m a handyperson at everything, expert at nothing.” |
| letterman | achiever, award winning athlete | The young men and women on the high school swim team could not wait to get their award-winning athletes’ jackets. |
| man of action | go-getter, human dynamo | As someone who has referred to myself as a “woman of action,” I can’t imagine ever saying, “Yes folks, I’m a real human dynamo." Barf. |
| meter maid | parking enforcement officer | And suddenly, The Beatles’ song is much less charming:
Lovely Rita parking enforcement officer |
| yes-man | avid follower, supporter | I don’t think “avid follower” or “supporter” really captures the gist of this word being used as a synonym for “brown-noser.” J |
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory
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[…] police officer (rather than policeman) and mail carrier (rather than mailman). Kara has covered this topic before, but I read a good article, and I like to […]
By: Editor’s Corner: Gender-Neutral Language | Editor's Corner on May 24, 2017
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