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I'm convinced. Where can I mention that women are very welcome?I'm convinced. Where can I mention that women are very welcome?Posted Aug 30, 2009 1:01 UTC (Sun) by coriordan (guest, #7544)In reply to: I'm convinced. Where can I mention that women are very welcome? by hypatiadotca Parent article: FSF to host a mini-summit on Women in Free Software
Let's not get carried away.
Singular they can lead to ambiguity. Relacing "he" with "they" breaks this sentence:
"If the crowd doesn't leave the owner's office now, he could be stuck there all night."
And it can also change the tone. No problem in formal writing, and I use it in that situation, but just like using "one" changes your tone (and is likely to offend in informal settings), using third-person "they" can be inappropriate in some settings.
The problem has no perfect solution. Stallman tried to help by propagating the "Per/pers/perself" suggestions of the gender neutral language movement, but it didn't take off.
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I'm convinced. Where can I mention that women are very welcome? Posted Aug 30, 2009 2:17 UTC (Sun) by hypatiadotca (guest, #60478) [Link]
"The crowd could be stuck there all night if they don't leave the owner's office now."
Presumably the owner is known to be male or female anyway, but a 3-second look at that sentence told me how to rephrase it in any event. It does get easier once you start writing for neutrality on a regular basis.
It's even a plural "they" in this case :)
I've mentioned it else-thread, but Miller and Swift's "Handbook of Nonsexist Writing" is really a fantastic resource on the topic. I refer to it on at least a weekly basis.
The one word I haven't found a decent neutral version for is "handyman". "Fixer" just doesn't have the same flavour to it, and "repair person" is just meh.
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