1. The Struggle for Gender-Free Language: Is It Over Yet? Carol Jun

2. Overview Introduction Several litmus tests The All purpose He We Love to Hate One Term for All and All Terms Inclusive Reinventing the Flat Tire? Conclusion

3. Introduction All current style manuals address in one form or another the need for bias-free, inclusive language. Does gender-free writing still present problems, and if so, how are most of us resolving them? After all these years of practice at being evenhanded, consider several litmus tests.

4. The All-Purpose He We Love to Hate The first evidence of how popularized the issue of fairness has become is the case of what’s called the “generic he.” At this point, it probably should be replaced for more than issues of social justice: Used this way, the masculine pronoun is likely to stop most readers because they see it so seldom.

5. The All-Purpose He We Love to Hate No matter the writer’s intention, this risk is that he won’t be considered inclusive and will annoy readers. Generally accepted ways to eliminate gender bias include these basic rewrites: use we or you instead of he; use he or she; or substitute passive voice.

6. One Term for All and All Terms Inclusive The second, closely related challenge in gender-free writing has been to substitute inclusive terms for gender- specific ones. The move to many of these words has been painless. Police officer, fire fighter, flight attendant, news caster, and the like all have gained general acceptance.

7. One Term for All and All Terms Inclusive No meaning is lost, and there’s nothing particularly awkward or silly about any of these terms. But not all gender-free language rolls off the keyboard quite so easily.

8. Reinventing the Flat Tire? A third category are alternative words Maggio proposes that may not be obvious candidates for change because they seem to work. Mastermind seemed just find to everyone surveyed. Despite the “master,” it did not strike anyone as being a based term, and the alternatives.

9. Conclusion It’s clear that despite good intentions and conscientious efforts, writers and editors still lack an easy way to free language of gender bias. It isn’t over yet; for us this stuff may never be entirely reflexive. It’s a work in progress, but like it or not, it’s here to stay.