Avoid erasing women and nonbinary people from everyday conversations

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)”

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