Gender-Neutral Words

Gener-Neutral Words

Gender-Neutral words are pronouns that are used when the gender of someone is unknown, or a person’s identity is non-binary or genderless. The purpose of gender-neutral words is to remove gender bias from the English language. For instance, convention once dictated that a person or people whose gender was unclear would be referred to with masculine pronouns only.

For instance

I don’t know who owns that car, but they’ve parked in my spot!

Was once

I don’t know who owns that car, but he’s parked in my spot!

If the speaker does not know who owns the car, why would they assume it was a male driver? By avoiding the presumption that the subject would be any particular gender, we construct sentences that are applicable to a wider, more diverse audience. By crafting our sentences for inclusivity, we avoid singling out one particular gender.

Here is a table of examples that demonstrate the contrast between gender-neutral and gender-specific pronouns:

Gender-Neutral

They ran a red light.

They left their jacket.

Their work was stellar .

Gender-Specific

He/she ran a red light.

He/she left his/her jacket.

His/her work was stellar.

As part of the move toward gender-neutral language, many gendered terms are being removed from daily speech in favour of more egalitarian words.

Man

Mankind

Manmade

Policeman

Stewardess

Mother

Father

Son

Daughter

Actress

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

becomes

person or individual

people or humanity

machine made, synthetic or artificial

police officer

flight attendant

parent

parent

child

child

actor

Gendered terms can encourage a particular, harmful bias in readers. Watch any work you are writing or editing for unnecessary gendered language to avoid any unintended bias, presumption or stereotyping.