Gender

The most common change of recent decades involves making job titles gender neutral, so that occupational roles are not associated solely with 1 gender. Workplaces have already moved away from labels such as ‘manageress’ (manager) or ‘air hostess’ (cabin crew). But other terms seem to have more staying power.

As people of all genders increasingly take up all occupations, it is best to use a gender-neutral title.

Personal titles remain useful to indicate the gender of a person. But just as our understanding of gender is expanding beyond the traditional binary of male and female, so too are the options we can use in personal titles.

Wherever possible, try to find out how a person prefers to be addressed. The most common options are:

As with personal titles, it is best to ask what pronouns people prefer that you use when writing about them. It is already common to use the singular ‘they’ where you are unsure of a person's gender. And new options are available for those who are neither male nor female.

Perhaps the most debated aspect of gender-neutral language relates to the use of ‘they’ when referring to a singular third person.

Some languages have a gender-neutral third person pronoun, but the English term ‘they’ has traditionally served only in plural. However, social media and other major corporations have broadly adopted the singular ‘they’ and it is increasingly being recognised by style guides as well. 

The ASG supports this shift because it covers contexts where gender is unknown and it is more inclusive for people whose gender is non-binary. And it is certainly better than the awkward ‘he/she’ construction.