Effectively Employing Gender Savvy Language

What does gender-discriminatory and gender-biased language look like? In this post, I offer definitions and examples with tips for tweaking your phraseology to be more gender savvy.

The essential point of gender sensitive language is to make everyone you interact with feel—through the use of thoughtful and accurate language—of equal value, dignity, integrity and respect. That's really what it is in a nutshell.

Gender neutral pronouns are a powerful tool in this regard, but there are other considerations in a gender sensitive lexicon to help you accruately express gender relationships with precision.

As a baseline, avoid using gender-discriminatory language which propagates stereotypes or is downright demeaning to people. It is important to note, that people use this type of language with no ill-intent. The impact, however, is still harmful.

Here's what gender-discriminatory language looks like:

World-renown doctors and their wives attended a global symposium on the latest practices in pediatric emergency care.

Let's unpack this loaded statement! What can we possible infer? Well, for starters, we might draw the conclusion that "elite" doctors are all male and married—no unhitched males in this profession and no female or nonbinary doctors, for that matter Also, women are seemingly reduced to a supporting role to their husbands.

It is important to note that even if this particular symposium's attendees were indeed all male doctors with their wives in tow, the gender of the doctors (and certainly their marital status) is irrelevant and perpetuates some damaging stereotypes.

A way to rephrase this statement to foster diversity, equity and inclusion could be:

World-renown doctors and guests attended a global symposium on the latest practices in pediatric emergency care.

To be even more gender savvy in your communication, have your ears tuned into gender-biased language. This is a type of gender-discriminatory language that either implicitly or explicitly favors one gender over another and usually doesn't take nonbinary people into account at all.

Here's an example:

In schools across the country, every teacher must ask herself how she can best serve her students.

Yikes! This is an awkward attempt at avoiding the all-too-pervasive use of male pronouns when trying to refer to people in a generic way. It excludes the thousands of wonderful male and non-binary adults in this country who educate our youth. It also perpetuates a stereotype that school teachers are female.

Let's try this another way:

In schools across the country, teachers must ask themselves how they can best serve their students.

The English language is awesome in the ability to offer precise solutions to gender issues. In this case, the use of the plural form offers a more inclusive statement.

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Pro-Tip: Adopt "a golden rule" principle to your language choices: treat others as you would want to be treated. Be aware of and work to challenge stereotypes (e.g.,school teachers are female, doctors are male), keep "inclusion" in mind, and do not subordinate groups of people

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By taking the time to consider how our language matters we can foster a kinder society.