Gender discrimination

Gender-neutral language is an attempt to take gender bias out of the English language and make it gender neutral, that is not favoring the male gender or the female gender.

Gender-neutral language reflects at least two different schools of thought.

• One is aimed at clarifying the inclusion of both sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language).

• The other proposes that sex or gender as a category is rarely worth marking in language (sex-neutral language) and should be eliminated all together.

An example of language that may contains assumptions about gender is the sentence:

• "Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor; I hope he is friendly."

If the speaker does not know what gender that the doctor is, in English, they might, according to earlier grammatical rules assume that the doctor will be male. Even if there is no such actual assumption intended by the speaker, some listeners might infer such an assumption—this is not neutral language. Why shouldn’t the doctor be a woman? Why can’t a language reflect the possibiliy that the doctor could be either a man or a woman?

Perhaps language like that in the example reflects a speaker's belief in, or support of, traditional gender roles. Gender-neutral language is not concerned with judging the speaker's beliefs, however; it is only concerned with proscribing forms of language that might be interpreted, by some hearers, as acceptance of traditional stereotypes. It would recommend the following kinds of alternatives.

• "Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor, who I hope is friendly."

• "Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor; I hope the doctor is friendly."

• "Tomorrow I will meet my new doctor; I hope he or she is friendly."

Another example shows the practical nature of the gender-neutral language proscription.

A business might advertise that it is looking for a new chair or chairperson rather than chairman. Gender-neutral language would argue that you should not use chairman, on the grounds that some readers would assume women are excluded from responding to an advertisment using this word.

History

Various forms of gender-neutral language became a common feature in written and spoken versions of many languages in the late twentieth century.

Various feminisms have argued that prior to this time, the practice of assigning masculine gender to generic antecedents was due to every 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."

Belief in theial effects of language was largely a 20th century phenomenon in the English-speaking world, and has been linked to the development of the concept of politically correct language and the principle of linguistic relativity by Benjamin Whorf and others.

Gender-neutral language is supported widely by certain types of businesses and educational institutions. Its stated purpose is typically social or ethical, such as promoting diversity or opportunity. Some believe that the roles of men and women in society have changed in various ways.

For example, gender-neutral language has gained support from major textbook publishers, and from professional and academic groups such as the American Psychological Association and the Associated Press. Newspapers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal now avoid such language.

Recent employee policy manuals have begun to include strongly worded statements prescribing avoidance of language that potentially could be considered discriminatory. The wording of this statement from a policy manual is typical: "All documents, publications or presentations developed by all constituencies…shall be written in gender neutral and/or gender inclusive language. Employees are told that they need to be aware of their responsibilities to avoid discriminatory language, and that they are required to implement the enterprise's commitment to treat stakeholders equally and with courtesy. Institutional members are instructed, as a matter of corporate policy, to avoid using language that may even appear to be discriminatory, or that may give offense in verbal or written communication. They also provide guidance about how to reflect the concept of valuing diversity in language usage.