Chapter 5: Language bias: International Development Research Centre

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

français - Español

idrc.ca HOME > Publications > IDRC Books > > >

Topic Explorer

People

ID: 105658

Added: 2006-11-09 15:31

Modified: 2006-11-09 15:47

Refreshed: 2009-01-02 10:35

Click here to get the URL for the RSS format file

Chapter 5: Language bias

Document(s) 6 of 10

Philosophy
Word usage
Treatment of materials
Possible substitute words

PHILOSOPHY

IDRC's activities are directed to the development of all people and the promotion of human equality and opportunity. Its publications should, therefore, reflect this philosophy through their language and illustrations.

In the IDRC story, language should never prejudice, stereotype, or exclude part of humanity. Clear, precise communication is the aim.

Generic versus false-generic terms

A generic term is an all-purpose, gender-free word that includes everybody. A false-generic term is a word that is claimed to include all people, but that in reality does not.

Example: Some speakers and writers use mankind to mean everybody, but not all their listeners and readers perceive the word that way: it is a false generic.

The suffix or prefix man could refer to an adult male human being — it might not, of course. Each time people encounter this convention, they must decide which meaning is intended.

Clarity of thought and expression demands that this ambiguous use of the word be eliminated.

Racial, social, and gender stereotypes

Although racial and social stereotypes are usually easy to recognize and avoid, gender bias is more pervasive and, hence, less apparent. Equally, gender bias is sometimes more difficult to avoid because of the nature of the language.

A little careful thought will usually produce better — gender-free and clearer — wording.

Modifiers that refer to age, sex, religion, race, and so forth should only be used if they are relevant in the context of the statement.

Parallel and inclusive treatment

One of the keys to avoiding unfair bias is to ensure that people of both sexes and all races, religions, ages, and so forth are given parallel treatment and that words and expressions used are inclusive.

Limitations

Because usage is determined by the context in which words and expressions occur and the audience for which the material is intended, it is difficult to impose rigid rules.

IDRC rules

The following guidelines should help ensure that all materials produced by IDRC are unbiased.

Limitation
These guidelines obviously cannot apply to documents that deal with matters related to only one of the sexes.

Quotations that contain exclusive language should be paraphrased, if possible, to remove bias.

In IDRC publications

Few pejorative words or expressions should find their way into material IDRC might consider publishing. However, the fact that the following are still in the unabridged version of Webster's provides food for thought:

jew — to cheat by sharp business practice;
welsh — to cheat by avoiding payment of debts; to avoid dishonourably the fulfilment of an obligation;
dutch treat — a meal [etc.] for which each person pays his [sic] own way;
street arab — a homeless vagabond in the city;
dago (a corruption of Diego, a common Spanish given name) — a person of Italian or Spanish birth or descent;
indian giver — one who gives something and then takes it back; and
yellow peril — a danger to Western civilization held to arise from the expansion of the power and influence of Asian peoples.

All of these are, to a greater or lesser degree, offensive to members of the racial or national groups concerned.

Avoid any terms that may give offense to a particular nationality or group. Many pejorative terms are considerably more subtle than those given above. For instance, Asiatic means the same thing as Asian, but is considered insulting by most Asians (a fact recognized even by Webster's).

Challenged versus disabled or handicapped

People with physical disabilities usually prefer the word "challenged" to "disabled" or "handicapped" — for example, physically challenged. (When this section was first written in 1985, disabled was the "new" acceptable term; in 1993, disabled was on the unacceptable list!)

Because of the frequent changes, it is impossible to give firm guidelines about what is acceptable and what is not. The editor must be sensitive to this and seek out the appropriate term. It is generally safer to say a person with a disease or condition than to label the person.

The word "retarded" has a very specific meaning, and should not be confused with learning disability. "Dumb" means mute, it does not mean stupid or inexperienced, despite the definition in Webster's.

Context

Frequently, a word or expression becomes disparaging by virtue of the context in which it is used.

Boy versus man
A boy is a male child, nothing else. Expressions such as stock boy and house boy should be avoided if the boy in question is in reality a man.

Girl versus woman
The only acceptable use of girl is when referring to a female child.

Other uses ("My girl will get the file" or "The girls are preparing lunch") are belittling. Bear in mind also that Webster's definitions of girl include female servant and prostitute. So, the word should be women, not girls.

Native or indigenous people
Similarly, the word natives can conjure up visions of British colonial Africa if poorly placed. Native people or indigenous peoples avoids the problem.

Peasant
Peasant is a legitimate term, in the proper context, to describe smallholder farmers or farm labourers. However, the word has other connotations (Webster's: a rather uneducated, uncouth person in the low-income group) and can, in fact, be used as a deliberate insult. Perhaps it is better avoided, rather than risk offending an impoverished, but couth and educated, farm worker.

Terminology of development

"A key language question is how to divide the nations of the world into two categories. The exercise is by definition unreasonable: no two categories could possibly offer an informative or sensitive method of defining such a complex collection. Nonetheless, some such distinction is not only valid but also crucial; this is clear from the attempts to make it." For Earth's Sake: A Report from the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Change. IDRC, Ottawa, ON, Canada. 152 pp, 1992.

The terms developed, underdeveloped, and less-developed are seen in older material written about development. They should not be used.

Poor countries should be avoided except where it is justified by the context. So should poor farmers, villagers, etc. Poor is just too loose a term. If you mean subsistence farmer, say so.

Least-developed refers to a specific group of countries classified by the World Bank as being in greatest need of assistance and should only be used in that sense.

Developing, perhaps because it is so imprecise, is still the safest word to use. It is unsatisfactory, however, in that it implies that there is a state of "developedness" that has been attained by some countries (the developed ones) — strictly, all countries are developing.

The North–South axis is also a relatively safe distinction despite its geographic imprecision: New Zealand is in the south and Ethiopia is in the north but Ethiopia is a Southern country and New Zealand a Northern one. Note the use of capitals.

Third World is the most recognized description for developing countries and it is still acceptable. However, it has lost its original context — nonaligned (Third World) versus capitalistic (First World) and socialist (Second World) blocs — and, therefore, as a comparative term (Third World versus First World) it is perhaps not as useful as it was.

A term that is used in special situations is Fourth World to denote indigenous enclave nations and peoples who are subsumed into an internationally recognized political and territorial entity. According to this definition, nations are composed of a self-identifying people, often united by a common language or religion, or both, and occupying all or part of an ancestral territory. (Paraphrased from Nietschmann, B.Q. 1985. Fourth World nations: conflicts and alternatives. Fourth World Documentation Project, Center for World Indigenous Studies, PO Box 2574, Olympia, WA, USA, 98507-2574.)

Sexism and racism

It was perfectly legitimate to point out that Kim Campbell was Canada's first woman prime minister or to have described Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president.

In normal circumstances, however, it should not be necessary to point out that Ms Campbell is a woman, nor that Mr Mandela is black.

In the same vein, it is normally unnecessary to say woman doctor (or teacher, engineer, driver, researcher), or to say black lawyer (or writer, politician, dentist, scientist).

In most contexts, this additional information is irrelevant, and to include it is simply sloppy writing.

Furthermore, the unnecessary use of such modifiers subtly implies that there is something abnormal about being a woman doctor, or a black one, and that the norm for doctors is white and male. This also works the other way around with terms such as male nurse.

Worse still is the use of expressions such as "a good woman doctor," which implies, of course, that she is good "for a woman" (but not up to male standards, naturally). The use of the modifier merely creates confusion.

Example: Marie Curie was one of the greatest women scientists.; Is she being judged in this statement on a par with all other scientists, or only with other women scientists?; The statement should read either "Marie Curie was one of the greatest scientists" or "Among women scientists, Marie Curie was one of the greatest."

Again, it is simply a matter of good writing (or editing) to ensure that the statement really says what is intended.

Another commonly used modifier is "working," as in working wife or working mother. Working women will suffice, except when it is necessary to point out that the woman in question is married and employed or is a mother and employed.

In either of these cases, say what you mean — any mother will testify that there is no such creature as a nonworking mother, even if she is fortunate enough to be able to afford domestic help.

Ageism

Perhaps one of the most frequently used, unnecessary modifiers is reference to age. It is not necessary to say the old man, unless his age is relevant to the context.

Old has many connotations: in some cultures, it can mean wisdom and experience, whereas in others it implies weakness and senility. Similarly, young can be used as a euphemism for inexperienced, as in "the young scientists participating in the training program."

In this context, it is fine but, used in a phrase such as "the young scientist in charge of the project," it could be taken to imply incompetence.

Old versus young — The use of both old and young in a pejorative sense obviously depends very much on the context: take care to avoid giving unintentional offense.

Religious names

Finally, it should be noted that by no means all the world's people are Christians, and it is therefore safer to use given name or personal name rather than Christian name. First name is not appropriate because many cultures place the family name first, followed by the given name.

Other expressions that have religious overtones should also be avoided, as should specific titles such as priest or sheikh when what is meant is religious or community leader unless they are appropriate to the context.

WORD USAGE

Man as a generic term

Man has become so closely linked with its definition "adult male" that it no longer serves as a generic term to describe all human beings. Thus, readers must guess whether man refers to all people or just to adult males.

This is the kind of ambiguity that editors and writers are in the business of trying to clear up.

The generic "man" can usually be replaced by humans, people, humanity, or some other word that suits the context.

Example: "... the job of meeting man's food needs will be left to those few ...." could easily be "... the job of meeting people's [or humanity's, world, global, human] food needs will be ...."

Someone, anyone, and everyone are often good substitutes for the phrase "a man who ...." Or a sentence can sometimes be rewritten.

Example: "A plow without a man will not affect production" would be better as "A plow alone will not affect production."

Man as a verb can usually be replaced by a more precise word, for instance, "staff" or "operate."

Eliminating the word entirely is often an even better solution.

Example: "In the prayers of men in all great religions, the quest for one's daily bread embodies all of man's material needs" would be better as "In the prayers of all great religions, the quest for one's daily bread embodies all material needs."

When used to mean person as part of a compound word, man has the same drawbacks as it does in the generic sense. Clearer, more precise words can usually be substituted, or, as in other examples, careful pruning can do the trick. In fact, it can improve sentences immensely.

Example: "Mankind cannot live without water. To survive, the equivalent of at least 1.4 L of water per day must be taken into the body in the form of foods of liquids" could be "To survive, people need an intake of 1.4 L of water per day" or "To survive, each person needs a daily intake of 1.4 L of water."

Persons and other people
Person or people can at times replace the word man in compound terms, and several new words (for example, chairperson, lay person) that were coined this way have gained widespread acceptance.

Those that have been incorporated in everyday usage are suitable for inclusion in IDRC publications. However, person is frequently overused, tacked on indiscriminately to replace the generic man in compound words.

Also, it is sometimes used as a euphemism for woman, as was done in an IDRC seminar set up by the former Communications Division some time ago. The program included several chairmen, who were men, as well as one chairperson, who was a woman.

Common sense is the key to using "person" effectively.

Pronoun problems

Avoid the use of the pronouns he, his, and him — as well as she and her — to refer to any unspecified or hypothetical person who may be either male or female. In addition, the surrounding text should indicate that the subject may be of either sex.

Solve this problem in one of several ways — pluralizing, eliminating the pronouns, or rephrasing the sentence, or using the "neutral" pronouns they, you, one, and it. Judicious use of these alternatives should produce a clear, euphonious text.

Pluralizing
Sentences can often be rewritten in the plural form without affecting meaning.

Example: Not: "If, after independent project work, the trainee continues to exhibit competence, he may be promoted to the position of water foreman or water assistant."; But: "If, after independent project work, the trainees continue to exhibit competence, they may be promoted to the position of water supervisor or water assistant."

Double pronouns
Although double pronouns — "he and she" — can be clumsy if overused, they help avoid the problem of "neutralizing" sentences in which some readers may automatically assume the subject to be male. For emphasis, you can reverse the sequence and use "she and he."

Example: Not: "If, after independent project work, the trainee continues to exhibit competence, he may be promoted to the position ...."; But: "If, after independent project work, the trainee continues to exhibit competence, he or she may be promoted ...."

Eliminating pronouns
Pronouns can often be dropped entirely or replaced without nouns.

Example: Not: "An interviewer or observer almost always has to make difficult treks through mountains, streams, rivers. ... After a day's hard walk, he often finds that the village he has just reached cannot accommodate him."; But: "An interviewer or observer almost always has to make difficult treks through mountains, streams, rivers. ... After a day's hard walk, the traveler often finds that the village reached has no accommodation."

Rephrasing sentences
Sentences can often be rewritten to avoid the use of pronouns.

Example: Not: "If, after independent project work, the trainee continues to exhibit competence, he may be promoted to the position ...."; But: "The trainee who continues to exhibit competence after independent project work may be promoted to the position ...."

They as singular
Although rejected by some grammarians, the use of they as a singular pronoun is becoming more widespread and has been used for centuries by a series of writers. IDRC style avoids this construction.

You
In instructional materials, the third person pronoun can be avoided by addressing the reader directly.

Example: On arriving in the tropics, you should allow several days to adapt to the local conditions and recover from "jet lag."

One
One sometimes serves as a third-person pronoun.

Example: On arriving in the tropics, one should allow several days to adapt to the local conditions and recover from "jet lag."

It
Refer to objects such as ships, automobiles ("Fill 'er up"), geysers ("Thar she blows"), and so forth as it, do not personalize them. Similarly, unless the sex of an animal is germane, it should be referred to as it.

Miscellaneous words

Coed
An abbreviation for "coeducational" entered the language as derisive slang for women admitted to institutions of higher learning that had previously been male preserves. The proper term is student.

Divorcée
Webster's (1971) defines only the feminine-gender form indicating the predilection for labeling a woman's marital circumstances. It should be avoided and a common gender "divorcé" adopted.

Fellow
Signifies a partner, colleague, co-worker, or member of a society. All forms of the word are common-gender nouns except for "fellowman."

Feminine suffixes
Webster's defines an agent-noun — author, farmer, or narrator — as one who performs the action. Adding Latin feminine-gender suffixes implies a deviation from the norm.

These suffixes are:

-ine: of or belonging to
-ess: female
-ette: 1. a little one (of the thing or class specified); 2. a group of (as in octette); 3. female; 4. imitation; substitute.
-trix: female that does or is associated with a (specified) thing.

When used in action-nouns, these suffixes serve as a modifier in the same way as other sex-linked descriptives. Thus, a poetess is "a female poet"; an actress is "a female actor"; and an executrix is "a woman exercising the functions of an executor."

Using the same agent-noun for both sexes may be the simplest way to avoid linguistic sexism. For words such as airline steward/stewardess that are enshrined in usage, it is preferable to use alternate terms such as "flight attendant."

Master
Master is a common-gender noun when used to describe someone who possesses mastery of an art or technique. The word mistress has not acquired this meaning!

Midwife
Midwife is an accepted designation for persons of either sex trained to assist at births.

TREATMENT OF MATERIALS

Generalizations

Assigning gender to generic terms
The average person is neither male nor female. Therefore, it is incorrect to assign gender to an "average people."

Example: Not: "From the information gathered by the researchers, the following picture of a typical hawker emerges. He is a native-born or long-term resident of the city. ... He works long hours, sometimes as many as 16 hours a day, and lacks the facilities or knowledge ...."; But: "The information gathered by the researchers gives the following picture. The typical hawker is male [if this is what the author meant] and a native-born or long-term resident of the city. ... The working day is long, as much as 16 hours a day, and the average hawker lacks the facilities or knowledge ...."

Equally, collective nouns or national nouns include members of both sexes and again should not be assigned a gender. In rare cases, a collective noun may be gender-specific, for example, in developing-country settings, midwives are almost always women.

Example: Not: "Dr Castillo ... views the farmer not just as a farmer, but also as a family man, a consumer, and a target of development programs."; But: "Dr Castillo ... views the farmer as not just a farmer, but also as a parent, a consumer, and a target of development programs."

Needless modifiers
Unless it is important to the meaning and sense of the sentence, the gender of the person being discussed should not be specified.

Example: In "The male midwife is rare," the word "male" is probably necessary, but in "The female doctor and her patient discussed the problem," "female" is unnecessary as it is shown by the possessive, which may also be unnecessary.

"Wife" abuse
Wives are people too and should not be referred to only in terms of their husbands' positions. Equally, using "wife" as a term of exclusion should be avoided.

Example: Not: "They are called farmers for discussion purposes, although it is realized many are wives, children, and hired workers."; But: "Farmer, as used in this study, refers to all adults and children, whether owners or hired help, engaged in agricultural production."

Parallel wording and standard sequences

The classic example of nonparallel wording is "I now pronounce you man and wife." This is usually changed now to "husband and wife."

A similar lack of parallel is found in "men, women, and children": it should be either "adults and children" or "men and women, boys and girls."

All of these revisions show the standard sequences that we have come to expect and that are used unless emphasis is intended. There is generally no reason why the sequences could not be reversed. "Girls and boys, women and men" is generally as "right" as any of the other sequences that might be possible.

All too frequently, nonparallel treatment is shown in descriptive material. Age, appearance, or marital status is used to describe women, but professional status is used to describe men. Unless the particular description is germane and the meaning is clear, such adjectives should be omitted.

Often, this kind of description disguises fuzzy thought.

Example: Not: "The target population is preschool children and marriageable women ...."; But: "The target population is preschool children and women of child-bearing age ...."; However, we cannot be sure that this is what the authors intended as, elsewhere in the same article, they refer to girls of 10–15 years and adult women.

POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTE WORDS

There are several books devoted to nonsexist writing; among them is Rosalie Maggio's The Non-Sexist Word Finder (1987) that, in addition to the list of words, has an appendix on "Writing Guidelines" and another of selected "Readings." Both the guidelines and the readings, although aimed at sexist writing, can be read in terms of racist or any other kind of "-ist" writing.

Comment
Do not follow these suggestions slavishly; they are given only to help start the thought process of finding alternatives to words that may be seen as "sexist."

Not But
airman
anchorman
assemblyman
businessman
cameraman
cattleman
chairman / chairwoman
clergyman
craftsman
crewman / crewmen
dairyman
fireman
fisherman
foreman
herdsman
housewife
layman
lineman
longshoreman
maid / janitor
man (verb)
man-day
manhole
mankind
man-made
manpower
matron
middleman
newspaperman, newsman
nursing aides and orderlies
paper boys / paper girls
policeman / policewoman
postman, mailman
pressman
repairman
salesman / saleswoman
seaman
seamstress
spokesman
steward / stewardess
watchman
weatherman aviator, pilot
news commentator, announcer, newscaster
assembler
entrepreneur, business executive
camera operator, photographer
rancher
chairperson, moderator, chair
clergy
artisan
crew member, crew
dairy worker
fire fighter
fisher is sometimes used but it is not really satisfactory and the sentence should be rewritten
supervisor, job boss
herder, herd owner, rancher
homemaker
lay person, laity, uninitiated
line installer, repairer
stevedore
house (office) cleaner, building superintendent, custodian
staff, operate
work day, person-day
access
humans, humanity, people, human beings
artificial, manufactured
personnel, human resources, workers, work force, labour
attendant, correctional officer (in prison setting)
intermediary, wholesaler
reporter, journalist, writer
nursing attendants
paper carriers
police officer
mail carrier, postal worker
press operator
repairer
sales clerk, sales representative, sales person, seller
sailor
dressmaker, tailor
representative
flight attendant, attendant
guard
weathercaster, weather reporter, meteorologist

Document(s) 6 of 10

guest (Read)(Ottawa) Login