Gender Neutral Terms

  • police officer rather than policeman
  • letter carrier rather than postman
  • firefighter rather than fireman
  • chair rather than chairman
  • server or (less commonly) waitron instead of waiter or waitress
  • cabin attendant rather than air hostess or steward
  • actor rather than actor AND actress

 

The following terms are used for both male and female

  • midwife
  • nurse
  • fisherman
  • comedian
  • model
  • judge

though it is fairly common for people to say ‘male model’ for example.

  • military titles

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

2 thoughts

  1. I solved our problem by calling our “letter carrier” Kathy! Works well. She is very nice!

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