It’s a lovely spring day, so I thought we’d stir up some controversy and talk about gender-neutral language: terms like 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 share.
The article I read mentions a college student who tested her instructor by using the word mankind rather than humankind after being expressly directed to use only gender-neutral terminology in her essay. The student found out how serious the instructor was when, as warned, points were deducted from her score for the use of this one word.
So why do this professor and most authorities believe that gender-neutral terminology is important? Well, for one thing, it is more accurate. Consider the term policeman. When we hear this term, most of us instinctively imagine a man in a police uniform. Many women serve on the police force, however, and the term policeman (and the image it elicits) disregards all those brave women. The exclusion is usually not intentional, but it occurs all the same.
The goal of gender-neutral language is to be inclusive. To help you achieve that goal, I’ve compiled a partial list of gender-neutral titles from the internet. (Tomorrow, we’ll talk about gender-neutral pronouns. I hope you can survive the suspense!)
| Gendered Title | Gender-Neutral Title |
| actor, actress | actor |
| businessman, businesswoman | business person/person in business, business people/people in business |
| chairman, chairwoman | chair, chairperson |
| congresswoman, congressman | legislator, congressional representative |
| delivery boy | courier, messenger |
| fireman | firefighter |
| foreman | supervisor |
| freshman | first-year student [dbb – I know this one is going to be a hard sell.] |
| insurance man | insurance agent |
| landlady, landlord | building manager, proprietor |
| mailman | mail carrier, letter carrier |
| man-made | synthetic, machine-made |
| ombudsman | troubleshooter [dbb – But this one is much more fun!] |
| policeman, policewoman | police officer |
| saleslady, salesman | salesperson, sales associate, salesclerk |
| self-mad man | entrepreneur, self-made person |
| steward, stewardess | flight attendant |
| the common man | the average person |
| waiter, waitress | server |
| mom, dad | parental unit [dbb – Courtesy of my son, Luke.] |
In case this topic is a little too serious, don’t think of this rule as mandatory. Think of it as persondatory.
Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®
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