I’m proud to be admitted to practice in New York, where gender neutrality in judicial opinions is the official Office of Court Administration Policy.
Here are some easy ways to make your writing gender-neutral:
- Use gender-neutral terms
- “king” becomes “sovereign”
- “Madam Justice Ginsburg” becomes “Justice Ginsburg”
- “Sister state” becomes “sibling state”
- “Statesmanship” becomes “diplomacy”
- Delete the suffix -man
- “Assembly member” (not “assemblyman”)
- “Chair” (not “chairman” or the inelegant “chairperson”)
- “Firefighter” (not “fireman”)
- “Supervisor” (not “foreman”)
- “Presiding juror” or the inelegant but standard “foreperson” (not “foreman”
- Avoid masculine terms: “mankind” (“humanity”); “manmade” (“made by hand”); “common man” (“average person”)
- Change terms once reserved for women (Mrs. and Miss become Ms., unless the person prefers Mrs. or Miss)
- Avoid the suffixes “-ette,” “-ess” and -trix”
- “Waitress becomes “waiter” or “server”
- “Actress” becomes “actor”
- “Executrix” becomes “executor”
- Techniques to avoid gendered language
- Make the antecedent plural: “An infant younger than seven may not be convicted of petit larceny. He is immune from prosecution.” Becomes: “Infants younger than seven may not be convicted of petit larceny. They are immune from prosecution.”
- Rephrase to eliminate the pronoun: “He who cannot do the time should not do the crime.” Becomes: “Anyone who cannot do the time should not do the crime.” Becomes: “If you cannot do the time, do not do the crime.”
- Repeat the noun
- Use second-person pronoun
- Use passive voice (a last resort)
- Don’t use these inelegant terms
- S/he or (s)he
- S/he/it
- He or she, him or her
- Alternating between “he” and “she”
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