“Birthing parent” language in work policy – inclusive or erasing women?

You’d be surprised how many trans men do give birth - when they have physical changes but just left the reproductive bottom - don’t know how to say it!

I never said lesbians weren't women! The language of 'birthing parent' serves them to distinguish that one of the women births and one does not. Others have pointed this out already so I didn't think it needed explaining.

Do you think OPs workplace employ children that are in need of maternity leave?

A girl or young woman can have a baby. ‘Child’ could indeed work too. It differs from ‘birthing parent’.

A lesbian is in fact a woman!

There are cases of M/M and F/F same sex parents. Even in Male/Female cases, in adoption the "mother" and the "birthing parent" are not the same person. In cases of surrogacy there could be 3 parents all entitled to some parental leave. A workplace parental leave policy has to cover all these cases as well as the more usual Male/Female where the Female is the birthing parent and the mother.

Lesbians are still women! The proportion of girls or trans people who give birth is absolutely miniscule, and does not justify the full erasure of the word "woman" from all communications about pregnancy and childbirth.

I wouldn’t be using this! The same goes for chest Feeding instead of breast feeding. Absolutely woke BS 🫃

Everyone who has ever given birth are female and they are mothers, no man has ever given birth nor will one. So how about we use the correct words instead of dehumanising women to pander to some fringe belief system

people on these threads confidently assert time and again that "only women can give birth". Not true. Children can and do. This language serves to include them, as well as lesbian couples and transgender people.

Ah see what you mean

no doesn’t sound right

I am 100% against the erasure of sex specific language including "mother". However I would assume this is more about lesbian couples, where there are 2 mothers, only one giving birth.

Exactly. Funnily enough it's only "women" and "mothers" who are erased - not "men" and "fathers". You see it all the time. Same old sexism.

I am on the fence - I appreciate they want to differentiate between birthing parent and non-birthing parent in same sex couples. But equally my employer is quite happy to use the word “father” in the paternity leave policy (and indeed elsewhere - people with uteruses and men with prostate cancer, etc).

Often in the same document as well, and yes it does irritate me that only “woman” and m”mother” are banned. It honestly wouldn’t annoy me at all if it was all one way or all the other way.

Is this not in case there are 2 women/mothers in a relationship. So the one giving birth has one policy and the other is entitled to the same as the male partner woulf

Exactly - I can’t understand why people think something is being taken away from them because another group are included - using biology to justify their argument in the same way as it was used against women by men to justify discrimination

also so many women complain about those roles and now don’t want to share

trans men who haven’t had bottom surgery

one thing I don’t like is when male and female couples say “we’re pregnant” 🤮

It doesn't deny that women give birth, and it doesn't stop me being a woman that gave birth. I really don't see why I should be upset ot uncomfortable with the policy wording. It includes me and any body else that's given birth 🤷🏼‍♀️

That's not inclusive - it's excluding women as a sex class

So we all know why those phrases aren’t used.

Wrong it excludes anyone who doesn't speak English as a first language and anyone with a learning disability and is extremely offensive to many men and most women

I also received an email about updated policy today with this ludicrous language. Either we work at the same place, OP, or our employers have used the same guidance to create their new policy.

I had to read it twice to understand what they were wanging on about; the language seemed so determined to avoid offence that it also avoided being clear and concise.

Yes.

And sometimes they are accompanied by their wives / also women / also mothers.

So language needs to distinguish.

Could easily be solved by ‘birthing woman’ or ‘birth mother’.

Just want to say this made me laugh out loud.

Nothing really helpful to add to the rest of the thread except that in general I hate all this ‘inclusive’ mumbo jumbo that just adds words and makes you go on some sort of word dance to explain simple concepts like maternity leave for new mothers. I feel the same about jobs like postman so it’s not women specific. Postman can be man in the ‘mankind = person’ sense rather than man or woman, it’s much simpler than postal delivery worker. I used to be a linesman at a sport and that’s now become linesperson and it’s a mouthful. Just keep it simple and stop reading into things where there isn’t any ill intent to be read into!

so a woman

The erasure of the words woman, mother and maternity from the maternity leave is ridiculous.
Birthing person/parent is a nonsense phrase that is legally illiterate. The protected characteristic is pregnancy and maternity and even mother is a specific legal term that only applies to women who give birth (as determined by the supreme Court in connelly vs the home office).
Even if a woman identifies as a man and has a GRC she is still a mother and will be registered as such on all of the child's documents including the birth certificate.
So really nobody should be using these stonewall approved nonsense phrases let alone put them in policies