For example: AvoidĬhairperson ("chair" is rarely used in federal Statutes)īusiness executive/entrepreneur/business person Of course, current drafting practices already require that legislative counsel select gender-neutral terms over gender-specific terms. Many gender-specific terms may be replaced with gender-neutral terms that have the same meaning. There are a number of ways to avoid using gender-specific language. In all other cases, it should be avoided. It is now generally well-accepted that gender-specific language should only be used for references to persons of one gender or the other, for example in provisions that deal with women taking maternity leave. (1) Words importing female persons include male persons and corporations and words importing male persons include female persons and corporations. The Interpretation Act provides that references to female persons include male persons and vice versa. In the past, the masculine pronoun was commonly used in the English language to signify the non-specific "he or she". rewrite the sentence in order to eliminate the pronoun completely.use a neutral word or phrase such as "person", "any person", "every person" or "no person".replace the masculine pronoun with an article.use the singular "they" and its other grammatical forms ("them", "themselves" and "their") to refer to indefinite pronouns and singular nouns.In addition, the following writing techniques should be considered to avoid using a gender-specific pronoun: Gender-specific words should be replaced with gender-neutral words that have the same meaning.
For this reason, gender-specific language should not be used in legislation. Laws that exclude references to the female gender do not promote gender equality. The need to deal equally with men and women highlights the desirability of drafting using gender-neutral language. It is also professionally responsible and is mandated by the Federal Plan for Gender Equality, which was approved by the Cabinet and presented to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995.
Gender neutrality is important when writing about people because it is more accurate - not to mention respectful - and is consistent with the values of equality recognized, for example, in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.