Language for Sex and Gender Inclusiveness in Writing

By Ethan T. Bamberger and Aiden Farrow

Over the last few years, many position statements and policies regarding gender inclusive language for transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people have been published. This “new” trend follows on from advances made by feminists who made it very clear that language must be unbiased towards and inclusive of women. Just as feminism faces opposition when proposing these changes, the public has responded to these new policies with polarized opinions making this seem a “culture war”, or a fight for dominance of one set of beliefs over another. This framing of gender inclusive language as being a political, academic, and cultural conflict can make us lose sight of the real issue, helping people. With this in mind, the question for researchers becomes: how can we help to remove barriers, and improve the quality of life and health services for TGNC and intersex people?

Although we don’t claim to have all the answers, adopting and understanding inclusive language is a vital first step. Perhaps most important is the distinction between sex and gender. Gender refers to a person’s internal sense of self and how it fits within a social construct of roles, norms, and expectations. Whereas sex refers to the physical sex characteristics of a person. Sex and gender are separate concepts but are often confused or viewed as inherently tied or predictive of each other. Neither sex nor gender are binary and both intersex and TGNC people are erased and marginalized by assumptions that they are. But inclusive language is more than just this distinction.

Some people believe that gender and sex inclusive language means that language must be gender neutral and devoid of references to men, women, male or female. Although gender neutral language does have a place in inclusive language, it is only a part of it. Gender neutral language is appropriate and useful when a sex or gender distinction or assumption creates bias or discrimination. We can already see this in use in current conventions such as “police officer”, “chairperson” or other common words. The word “parent”, for example, is appropriate when referring to people of different genders or when gender is not known or relevant. However, the words “mother” and “father” are also appropriate when referring to people who have indicated that they use those terms. The use of gender neutral terms allow space for people to parent (or chair, or fill other roles) in a way that is congruent with their gender and their expression of that without the bias of gendered assumptions.

These basics of sex and gender inclusivity and inclusive language can be applied to research, and it is especially vital to do so in highly sexed and gendered fields of healthcare like human lactation. Lactation research typically makes assumptions that all people who lactate were assigned female at birth and identify as women. Usually, these studies don’t present any information on the parent’s sex or gender, leaving the reader to assume that “mother” means cisgender endosex woman. However, we know that there is greater sex and gender diversity in the lactating population. Research that excludes TGNC people and intersex people by not gathering gender and sex data in an inclusive way not only risks erasure and marginalization, but also risks being inaccurate.

Using inclusive language in research creates space for the participants’ sex and gender to be correctly represented outside of the constraints of the researcher's assumptions. This is similar to how using “parent” leaves space for people to express their gender. Further, taking both your own assumptions as a writer and the possible assumptions that a reader may make into account during the subsequent writing of the manuscripts increases the accuracy of research and better conveys unbiased information to a reader while helping to undo erasure.

By reducing assumptions in research and the language that we use in thinking about, enacting, and sharing it, we increase accuracy regarding the representation of sex and gender in the population. In turn, this adds to an inclusive and more accurate body of research that reduces erasure of sex and gender minorities and provides a knowledge base to increase the quality of and the access to healthcare services for these communities.