We can avoid erasing women and nonbinary people from everyday conversations by using gender-neutral descriptions. Some examples include:
- Folks, folx, or everybody instead of guys or ladies/gentleman
- Humankind instead of mankind
- People instead of man/men
- Members of Congress instead of congressmen
- Councilperson instead of councilman/councilwoman
- First-year student instead of freshman
- Machine-made, synthetic, or artificial instead of man-made
- Parent or pibling instead of mother/father
- Child instead of son/daughter
- Kiddo instead of boy/girl
- Sibling instead of sister/brother
- Nibling instead of niece/nephew
- Partner, significant other, or spouse instead of girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband
- Flight attendant instead of steward/stewardess
- Salesperson or sales representative instead of salesman/saleswoman
- Server instead of waiter/waitress
- Firefighter instead of fireman
–Lydia Ortiz, “How to Use Gender-Neutral Words (and why they’re important)”