Gender neutrality

Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures, gender roles, or gender identity) should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another. Proponents of gender neutrality may support public policies designed to eliminate gender distinctions, such as gender-neutral bathrooms, with public restrooms being available without distinguishing the gender of the person using them. It has been observed that gender neutrality in the law has changed the nature of custody disputes, making it more likely that men will be awarded custody of their children in the event of a divorce. The legal definition of gender has been a controversial topic particularly to transgender people; in some countries in order to be legally defined as a new sex people must first undergo sterilization. California joined Oregon in its effort to recognize gender neutrality. On October 15, 2017 California governor Jerry Brown signed new legislation into law that allows persons the option to select gender-neutral on state identification cards. An issue related to gender neutrality is the gray areas that exist in gender. Trying to legally define the boundaries of gender has proven a difficult issue with the existence of people who identify or who are identified by others as intersex, third gender, transgender and more generally genderqueer or non-binary. Gender blindness is the practice of not distinguishing people by gender. Although gender blindness delineates the idea of equality of genders, it does not contribute to the ideas of gender neutrality. Someone who is gender blind does not necessarily side with ideas of movements that are found within gender-related biases. Gender-neutral language, gender-inclusive language, inclusive language or gender neutrality is a form of linguistic prescriptivism that aims to eliminate (or neutralize) reference to gender in terms that describe people. This can involve discouragement of the use of gender-specific job titles, such as policeman/policewoman, fireman, stewardess, and, arguably, chairman, in favour of corresponding gender-neutral terms such as police officer, firefighter, flight attendant and chairperson (or chair). Other gender-specific terms, such as actor and actress, may be replaced by the originally male term (actor used for either gender).