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)”