Draft:Gender Neutral Pronouns

Gender Neutral Pronouns

When referring to a person who could be of any gender, you should use the words they/them/their. This goes for code comments, text in templates, and strings in tests. For example, here's a string from a patrons test updated to be gender neutral.

Before:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Kid growing and become a juvenile,
he should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

After:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Kid growing and become a juvenile,
they should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

Gender neutral terms are preferable for a few reasons. They're more welcoming, showing that Koha expects users and contributors to be of any gender. They're also more accurate. Inappropriately using a particular gender can cause confusion, leading someone to believe that code operates differently based on the value of borrowers.sex, for instance.

Alternative proposal for Gender Neutral Language Usage

Primary Guidance for Gender Neutral Language Usage

Submitters should try to use the Chicago Manual of Style techniques for achieving gender neutral expression when referring to a person who could be of any gender. This guideline applies to code comments, text in templates, and strings in tests.

"5.225 NINE TECHNIQUES FOR ACHIEVING GENDER NEUTRALITY"

"There are many ways to achieve gender-neutral language, but it takes some thought and often some hard work." ... "All of them risk changing the intended meaning: though slight changes in meaning are inevitable, additional rewording may be necessary."

"1. Omit the pronoun:" 'the item is borrowed by him' becomes 'the item is borrowed'.

"2. Repeat the noun:" 'a user should be reminded of the policy when he is borrowing special material' becomes 'a user should be reminded of the policy when the user is borrowing special material'.

"3. Use a plural antecedent:" 'a user should have his library card' becomes 'users should have their library cards'.

"4. Use an article instead of a personal pronoun:" 'a child or juvenile user needs his parent or guardian when applying for a library card' becomes 'a child or juvenile user needs a parent or guardian when applying for a library card'.

"5. Use the neutral singular pronoun one:" 'when a user borrows material, he is expected to return it in the same condition' becomes 'when one borrows material, one is expected to return it in the same condition'.

"6. Use the relative pronoun who (works best when it replaces a personal pronoun that follows if):" 'if a user returns material early, he should receive an extra large smile' becomes 'a user who returns material early should receive an extra large smile'.

"7. Use the imperative mood:" 'a user must keep the material he borrows dry' becomes 'keep the material borrowed dry'.

"8. Use he or she (sparingly):" 'if a user needs to file a legal notice with the administration he should be directed to the proper form to file' becomes 'if a user needs to file a legal notice with the administration he or she should be directed to the proper form to file'.

"9. Revise the clause:" 'a user who borrows material during the summer break should be allowed an extended summer loan period unless records show that he is not returning next term' becomes 'a user who borrows material during the summer break and is retuning next term as shown in records should be allowed an extended summer loan period'.

Quality Assurance Practise for Gender Neutral Language Usage

People reviewing patches for quality assurance should charitably pass language usage problems using the simplest means such as singular they gender neutral pronoun substitution, they/them/their.

The submitter should be informed of the change to the patch which they had submitted and me choose to later resubmit a better change. The goal should be to keep patches moving quickly through quality assurance for mere issues of language usage.

Example

For example, here's a string from a patrons test updated to be gender neutral.

Possible original submission:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Child growing and becoming a juvenile,
he should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

Simple Correction from Quality Assurance to pass patch:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "Child growing and becoming a juvenile,
the now juvenile user should pay " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

Better Correction which Original Submitter may Chose to Resubmit:

is( $total, $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J, "A child growing and becoming a
juvenile has a fee of " . ( $enrolmentfee_K + $enrolmentfee_J ) );

Explanation

Gender neutral terms are preferable for a few reasons. They're more welcoming, showing that Koha expects users and contributors to be of any gender. They're also more accurate. Inappropriately using a particular gender can cause confusion, leading someone to believe that code operates differently based on the value of borrowers.sex, for instance.

If the Coding Guidelines is a formal document, examples used particularly when the issue is language usage should probably better exemplify correct language usage than the example given even if an artificially constructed example is used for the purpose of explanation. [I have seldom given much attention to patron code and ignore any issues which may be raised in the code itself apart from English usage.]

I think that Mark Tompsett expressed complications of ambiguous pronoun referebces well in [Koha-devel Let's avoid antecedent confuson too (was Gender-neutral pronouns)]. “Kid growing and become a juvenile, they should pay” might be better worded “A child growing and becoming a juvenile has a fee of “. Others raised similar complications of understanding ambiguous pronoun references for people who's native language is much more gendered than English.

Mark's changing 'kid' to 'child' is better formal usage. [Kid was used as pejorative when I was growing up.] Fixing the verb form for 'become' is correct English grammar.

The descriptive lexicographer Robert Burchfield in his revision of Henry Fowler's prescriptive Dictionary of Modern English Usage reports that kid is informal. "kid (noun). Used to mean 'child', despite its long history (first clearly recorded in the 17c), it is now markedly informal and should be restricted to such contexts ..." -- The new Fowler's modern English usage / first edition by H.W. Fowler. - Rev. 3rd ed. / [edited] by R.W. Burchfield. - Oxford University Press, c 2000.

The recently approved Library of Congress Demographic Terms uses 'Children' as the authorised plural term for the group in which a 'child' would be a member. Scope note: "People from birth through twelve years of age." 'Kids' is merely a disfavoured see from reference.