The Importance of Gender Neutral Language for Defence
9/1/22
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from WavellRoom,
3/8/20:
Why is adopting gender-neutral language so difficult for the Armed Forces? In 2017, a training establishment was widely ridiculed in the press for having suggested a fairly mild list of gender neutral terms to replace words such as ‘chaps’ and ‘manpower.’ Alarmingly, much of the opposition came from serving personnel who branded it “the daftest thing ever” and took to social media to decry the move. And last year, the news broke that the Army may (or may not) still refer to sewing kits as ‘housewives’. This led to a further media frenzy, roughly divided between condemnations of institutional sexism and cries of “political correctness gone mad”. But does it even matter? The short answer is yes.
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