by Penka Arsova
LaCorte News
An Australian university is encouraging staffers to start using gender-inclusive language that would see them abandoning words like “mother” and “father.”
The story: The Australian National University’s Gender-Inclusive Handbook, which describes itself as being for “any ANU student or staff member involved” in teaching, offers advice for improving inclusivity and adopting gender-neutral terms.
The handbook notes that while “many students will identify as ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’, using these terms alone to describe parenthood excludes those who do not identify with gender-binaries.”
The guide suggests using the term “gestational parent” or “birthing parent” for “mother,” as well as non-gestational parent” or “non-birthing parent” instead of “father” in a section about parents and students.