Only use gendered language when it is appropriate for the context (eg use the Chair rather than Chairman). Beware of language that trivialises women such as ‘cried like a woman’ or ‘the girls at the bar’.
Always remember to be balanced and don’t marginalise one group; eg do not write ‘Circumcision is the main event in childhood’ if what is meant is that circumcision is the main event in a boy’s childhood. Go on to provide information about the important events in the lives of girls or women in the society in question. Avoid constructions such as ‘John Smith and his wife own this shop’. Rewrite as ‘John and Betty [or Betty and John] Smith own this shop’.
Ensure advice is inclusive of all gender identities. When describing cultural expectations, provide information for all travelers rather than segmenting by binary gender. For example, when discussing clothing expectations, describe them for all travelers and note any specific variations based on perceived gender presentation.
Following are some terms to pay close attention to.
Alumnus and alumni are not gender-neutral terms, so should not be used to describe a group of women and men together. ‘Alumnae’ (the singular is ‘alumna’) refers to women and ‘alumni’ (the singular is ‘alumnus’) refers to men.
When this phrase is used, often the person’s father is the only one described, eg Captain Cook might be described as the son of a Scottish farm labourer, though he was also the son of a Yorkshire woman. Be careful when using these phrases: refer to both parents unless the point of the sentence is the parent mentioned, eg Michael Douglas is the son of Kirk Douglas; Jason Gould is the son of Barbra Streisand.
Is it necessary to specify that someone is a female prime minister, a male model, a woman writer, a male nurse, or a cleaning lady? Chances are the answer is ‘no’, unless that is the point of the sentence, eg Julia Gillard was Australia’s first female prime minister. (If the modification is necessary, use female as the adjective, not woman.)
If a particular business or organisation refers to itself as ‘woman-owned’ or ‘women-owned’, please retain the local usage.
Girl is not synonymous with woman, nor parallel to man. Use girl only when referring to a female under the age of consent and boy when referring to a male under the age of consent (note that the age of consent varies from country to country). Do not use ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ as part of a job title, eg ‘paper boy’, ‘stock boy’, ‘ball girl’; use ‘ball kids’, ‘stockperson’ etc.
A gal is a female and a guy is a male. The plural ‘guys’ is often used to refer to a mixed group of females and males, but this use is ambiguous: how is the reader meant to know if the literal meaning is intended or not?
‘Fellows’ (or, more likely, ‘fellas’) is often used to denote men and women but we prefer not to follow this usage as it more literally means ‘men’ and is therefore ambiguous and excludes women. These terms are OK to use if all the members of the group are male.
The preferred term for a group of people is a gender-inclusive term such as folk(s) or people.
Although phrases such as ‘fellow colleagues’, ‘fellow members’ etc are, historically, incorrect if some of the group being referred to are female, this is acceptable according to current usage. Similarly, nowadays it’s fine to use ‘fellow’ for inanimate objects.
Avoid using these terms, which have pejorative connotations and associates a person’s occupation with their marital status. The preferred term for a man or a woman is homemaker. Also avoid assumptions that the people most interested in groceries, cleaning and baking techniques are ‘housewives’.
‘Lady’ is not synonymous with woman, nor parallel to man; it means a titled woman (Lady Thatcher) or is role-specific, an old-fashioned term for a refined woman, as gentleman is for a refined man. It is not appropriate to refer to ‘the ladies at the front desk’ or to ‘men and ladies’. In that case the preferred term is women.
‘Man’ often stands in for ‘humankind’, whereas the term ‘woman’ cannot. This use of ‘man’ is unacceptable; it is also ambiguous. The personal pronouns ‘he’, ‘his’ and ‘him’ should only be used when referring to a male, not to a hypothetical male or female. Watch out for sentences such as ‘The visitor should do his best to avoid staying at Hotel X’. Often a simple way around this usage is to rewrite the sentence in the plural: ‘Visitors should do their best to avoid staying at Hotel X’.
In LP guides it is acceptable to have single subjects with plural pronouns to avoid sexist language. Thus, instead of ‘Everyone should make up his mind’, you would write ‘Everyone should make up their mind’.
To specify whether a police officer, actor, firefighter, fisher, flight attendant, chairperson etc is female or male is rarely necessary. To call a group of female and male businesspeople ‘businessmen’ is offensive. Always use a gender-neutral term. If it is necessary to specify a person’s gender, use the adjectives female and male. However, take care not to revise history – in the 15th century craftsmen in many societies really were all men. Similarly, in some modern-day societies all members of a profession or practitioners of an art, for example, may come from the same sex.
In several common expressions ‘man’ is used as a suffix (eg ‘caveman’). You can get around this by using an alternative word or phrase (eg ‘cave dwellers’). On occasion there is not yet an alternative, eg for titles such as ‘duke’/‘duchess’, ‘prince’/‘princess’ and ‘count’/‘countess’.
The original meaning of ‘master’ (male head of a household) means that it should be avoided where an alternative is readily available and appropriate. The word ‘master’ forms many familiar compounds and terms including ‘masterpiece’, ‘mastermind’, ‘masterstroke’, ‘master bedroom’, ‘master plan’ and ‘master document’, so finding an alternative can be tricky and, in line with current usage, usually not worth the effort. Note, though, that some terms have been changed, such as ‘headmaster’/‘principal’. It’s fine to use as a verb.
For a quick reference to some commonly used terms and their gender-neutral alternatives, see below.
Do Not Use Preferred Term
actress actor
air hostess/stewardess flight attendant
businessman/businesswoman/businessmen businessperson(people), business community, business executive/manager, entrepreneur, proprietor
chairman/chairwoman chair/chairperson, convener, coordinator
cleaning lady cleaner
countrymen (as in ‘fellow countrymen’) countrypeople/countryfolk
craftsman/craftsmanship craftsperson/craft or quality
doorman door staff/door person
fireman/firemen firefighter
fisherman/fishermen/fishermen’s boat fisher/fishing folk/fishing community/fishing boat
foreman supervisor, work supervisor
garbage man garbage collector/rubbish collector
groundsman gardener, groundskeeper, grounds staff
handyman handyperson
headmaster/headmistress headteacher (UK); principal (US, but also other territories)
man (eg man an outpost) staff, run, work, attend or use a specific verb such as answer phones, operate/drive vehicles etc
man/mankind humans, people, humankind, humanity, human race etc
man-size big (or be creative)
man-hour labour hours, working hours, work hours, staff hours
manhandle handle roughly
manmade artificial, built, constructed, human, fabricated
manpower strength, human resources, labour, personnel, staff, workforce
-master, eg webmaster manager, eg web manager
Mother Nature nature
mother tongue native tongue
policewoman/policeman/policemen police officer
poor man’s inferior, cheaper
salesman/saleswoman sales representative, salesperson, shop assistant
spokesman official, representative, speaker, spokesperson
sportsman athlete, player, sports competitor, sportsperson
sportsmanship/sportsmanlike sporting
tradesman tradesperson
waitress waiter/waitstaff
weatherman meteorologist, weather bureau, weather
workmanship craft