If you avoid the feminist section then at least read this article

I’ve either worked closely with or worked for 31 of the organisations on Stonewall’s 100 Top Workplaces list - they all refer to maternity leave and paternity leave, they have “mothers’ rooms” for breastfeeding and storing breast milk, they have a mixture of men’s, women’s and unisex lavatories. So Stonewall’s requirement for LGBT-friendly workplaces doesn’t include removing particular words and concepts from terminology and replacing them with something else.

For avoidance of doubt, I don’t believe it’s possible to change sex and I think gender is a social construct. I just also don’t have any experience whatsoever, beyond people online saying it’s so, that we are all being told we need to use certain language.

trans men are biologically female and as such need the same protections and provisions as women, but often choose not to access services where they would have to acknowledge their female body.

And yet they have no problem conceiving a child (assuming it was consensual) being pregnant, giving birth and breastfeeding? That doesn’t “acknowledge their female body”?

Angelo, my point was directed more to the post you quoted than to you!

Should have kept it in the feminism topic

Nobody seems overly bothered! 😆

However, one expert she speaks to (Victoria Male), uses the term 'pregnant people' every single time. It isn't a mistake. It isn't to mix up the language a bit to avoid repetition. And don't be fooled into thinking this language is used to highlight that pregnant women are still people.

It is part of a larger push to separate the act of childbearing from being a woman. And this isn't about women who choose not to be mothers or who are unable to be mothers either - this is very much connected to trans rights activism and the idea that not all people who give birth are women, and not all women give birth.

I think it is no coincidence that Victoria was the youngest expert on the panel. The others, including the representative from RCOG continued to use 'pregnant women'.

Watch the talk - especially if you want to find out more about the vaccine and its impact on pregnancy and fertility. All of the speakers were very good.

But please note that this language is beginning to creep into the discourse. Let's not close our eyes to this.

It is definitely happening, my work place maternity policy has been made 'gender neutral'.. except it really hasn't. They've simply swapped the words 'mother' or 'woman' for 'parent'. A parent which we all know, when capable of pregnancy, is a woman (whether they like it or not). Not allowing us to say so is not 'inclusive' and makes the policy nonsensical in places.

Adoption UK has pointed out, on twitter, that Stonewall advising its diversity champion partners to replace the word "Mother" with "parent who has given birth" is really not very inclusive at all.....

twitter.com/adoptionuk/status/1400779142795337730?s=21

Really couldn't care less about this. Non issue. I am a mother and will continue to call myself that. Doesn't affect me in the least if other terms exist too.

No sure, you’ve convinced yourself it’s happening because Sarah Vine said so and that’s good enough for you. Never mind there’s no actual real-life evidence of every midwife being shot at dawn for saying the word ‘mother’.

No, I'm convinced it's happening because I've been campaigning for women's rights solidly for the last 5 years. Ever since I noticed that women's rights were being rolled back.

Anyway, I'm not engaging with you anymore. I'm not getting much out of the experience tbh. Even if you are. 🤷

Seeking an echo chamber is exactly what you’re doing. You’re turning a blind eye to the absolute atrocities peddled by that excuse for a newspaper because on this particular issue, you share the same prejudice.

If inclusive language encourages them to access a service and keep themselves well, what’s unfeminist about that? Isn’t that ensuring that a group of people who are female but don’t consider themselves women, aren’t marginalised? The opposite of trampling on women?

If transmen wish to leave womanhood then that's fine. They don't get to remove the words that women use to describe themselves on their way out though. The term woman and mother are important to me as someone who is both of those things. It is to many many women. Rather than removing those words, why not just have women and transmen. Surely that is more inclusive. For everyone.

I’ll just repeat the question you haven’t answered

That's pretty aggressive. If you want this information then there's plenty of links on the feminist section. But I suspect you don't want it at all. You just want me to collect information and lay it at your feet for you to pick it apart disapprovingly. Sorry, but I don't intend to spend my Sunday collecting information for someone who is arguing in bad faith.
It makes no odds to me if you believe it or not. There are plenty of people who are genuinely interested. And you clearly are not one of them.
Hope this helps :-)

Thank you for sharing. I agree. Words matter.

Got any evidence that every midwife in Britain is now banned from using the word ‘mother’?

But that’s my point. I don’t know any organisations or people who have changed the language they use. I read about it, but I don’t experience it. So how prevalent is it really?

Well, between having my son and becoming pregnant again, my local Trust has apparently taken the time to remove the word mother from every page of the maternity section on its website. It now refers to “pregnant people”.

I was also banned from my local Maternity Voices Facebook page for objecting to their use of “pregnant people”.

Amazing. Let's make it all about Sarah Vine rather than about the real problem of what is happening to women and girls. 🙄

there are plenty of people writing about their concerns for the language used around women's issues and have genuine concern.

And then their is Sarah Vine who will write any old shit for money. She cares about Sarah Vine and Michael Gove and not much else.