Gender benders

Women today have a significant and growing presence in the workplace. So while celebrating International Women’s Day in the organisation, make a resolution to modifying your vocabulary, and apply gender-sensitivity to your communication. Doing so will not just pass you off as someone who keeps abreast of times, but also endear you to your female associates. Here are a few frequently-used words to keep in mind.

In the office or other work-related areas, it is best to use:

• ‘Personhours’ instead of ‘manhours’;
• ‘Businessperson’ instead of ‘businessman’;
• ‘Office cleaner’ or ‘housekeeper’ instead of ‘maid’;
• ‘Chairperson’ instead of ‘chairman’;
• ‘Salesperson’ or ‘sales representative’ instead of ‘salesman’/ ‘salesgirl’.

In your everyday life, use words like:

• ‘Synthetic’ or ‘artificial’ instead of ‘man-made’;
• ‘Ancestor’ instead of ‘forefather’;
• ‘Homemaker’ instead of ‘housewife’;
• ‘Layperson’ instead of ‘layman’;
• ‘Human-power’ instead of ‘manpower’.