Gender-Neutral Language

Some Basic Guidelines

Do not use he, his, or him unless the antecedent is obviously male. Do not use they and their as singular pronouns (too many people object to this). Bypass the problem of gender whenever possible. Use: o imperative mood ('Do this.') o second person (you, your) o plural nouns and plural pronouns ('Customer engineers should be well trained on the machines they service.') Avoid contrived phrases such as he or she, he/she and so on. Avoid contrived nouns such as layperson. Avoid pronouns completely when you can: o repeat the noun (sometimes this also makes your meaning clearer) o use a or the instead o find another solution In examples, use a mixture of male and female names, unless the situation clearly cannot include both sexes (for example, a medical text discussing pregnancy the doctor can be male or female, but the patient is always female - at least for a few more years). You can then refer to John as 'he' and Mary as 'she'. But beware of stereotyping the senior person as the male, and the subordinate as the female. Never use a 'feminised' noun (manageress, for example) when the normal noun (manager) covers both sexes. Never say woman doctor, lady lawyer, male nurse, or similar phrases. These phrases tend to be used in talking about individuals, and their sex usually becomes evident from other clues (the person's given name, or the use of a pronoun elsewhere in the discussion, for example); if their sex doesn't become evident from the context, it is clearly irrelevant.