Line managing someone who talks about "pregnant people" - how to gently tell her to use "woman"?

just tell her the term "pregnant people" is massively cis-phobic and, er, literal genocide. (or some such bollocks)

You could suggest that you use pregnant women throughout, but make an acknowledgement early on that nonbinary people can get pregnant, or maybe in a footnote:
This paper uses the word "women" throughout as this is preferred by most women, but we acknowledge that nonbinary people and transmen may sometimes become pregnant also. Wherever the term women is used, this should be understood to include these people who identify otherwise.

Oh @LittlePrecious I feel your pain (also work in academia in a particularly 'woke' #bekind area).

To stay safe, I think you have to focus on

• the intended audience (pregnant women & girls?)
• the intended subjects of your study (pregnant women & girls?)
• the science

And not in any way, shape or form, make it about a criticism of your colleague's language. Don't even address your colleague specifically. Make a general statement, that cannot be connected to your colleague. Been there, been burned (well, faced the disciplinary).

Good luck!

The RCOG uses ‘women’ throughout their publications and states “Within this information, we may use the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’. However, it is not only people who identify as women who may want to access this information. Your care should be personalised, inclusive and sensitive to your needs, whatever your gender identity”. You could say that in order to support a health literate approach to your information and to minimise risk to patients /service users and your organisation you’ll mirror their approach and use women throughout.

Then mouth ‘shut up you twat’ at her back.

You could start by asking her why she uses pregnant person rather than pregnant woman.

Depending on the answer you could say we prefer pregnant woman on this project.

If she is totally a GI believer, point out legislation uses the term woman or mother.

Then you ask ‘but what SEX are they, because that’s what we are talking about.’

I would think about a situation in which a GC colleague had a TWAW line manager who wanted her to use "pregnant person" rather than "pregnant woman". How should that line manager behave in a situation where the two parties have conflicting philosophical beliefs, where each holds a genuine belief that the other's way of thinking is actively harmful to society? What would respectful disagreement look like in that situation? How would you want gender critical women to be treated in workplaces where they are in the minority? Then treat her the way you would want that hypothetical gender-critical woman to be treated by her line manager.

If it's in harmony with the grant application, I would handle this issue by footnoting, in exactly the same way the BBC handles the migrant/refugee linguistic row. Asterisk, footnote: in this publication/project the word "woman" is used to include x, y, and z.

That's great that you're happy; many are not.

As pp have said, referring to people instead of women pushes women into the background even on issues of female health.

It's confusing for people who are neurodiverse or whose first language isn't English.

Out of interest, how do you refer to the parent who carries and gives birth to the baby? Because sometimes we need to know which of the parents we are referring to - they aren't interchangeable.

IIRC the government have told the NHS to stop this inappropriate use of language and say what they mean ie pregnant women.

OP it really depends on where your funding is coming from as to what definition you'll have to go with.

Given that the NHS has been institutionally captured into using offensive terms for women and mothers, it’s not surprising.

Doesn’t mean that they’re correct or that erasure of the words women and mother should continue.

OP - depending on the funding body (and who’s behind the money!) it may be that they use this ridiculously offensive language too. Otherwise can you correct her and agree on standard terms to use throughout all communications.

@AlisonDonut I agree with you: ask her to use the language in the funding application.

I read just today that the pregnancy app being rolled out by NHS refers to people who are pregnant, can’t remember where I read that, but it was being challenged as inaccurate

Is a girl not a young woman? Especially one old enough to be pregnant, even if too young for that to be an entirely welcome experience.

Tell her ‘women and girls’ and if she comes back with ‘but non-binary and trans men’, just say, “Quite right, Mary, but we’re talking about sex, aren’t we, as only women can get pregnant. We don’t want to conflate sex and gender, Mary, because that’s transphobic”

Great post - that should fit well with a student interested in a project on pregnancy.

It's that or murder her!

for crying out loud, it's all getting beyond ridiculous.

Women have babies.

What will the research body require? Are they of the size / type to have a language guide or similar documents or research which will demonstrate their expectations on this front?

I suppose I'm asking if they are captured or whether they are a GC / biology first and feelings second variety. That might help or hinder your case.

Leave a copy of Caroline Criado Perez’ book “Invisible Women” on her desk.
Can you talk about how important it is to focus on women’s health issues? Historically, we didn’t talk about women’s health - menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, symptoms of heart attacks for goodness sake: all never mentioned in polite society. The sixties, seventies and eighties were filled with women given prescriptions of benzodiazepines rather than treatment of their issues.
When we use the word women we are bringing women to the front, giving them importance. Using the word people pushes them back.
I don’t know if that can be imparted in a few short sentences.

So be happy then. Good for you.

Other women aren't happy at this description however, and should be allowed to say so.

@LittlePrecious
Ignore all the "pregnant man" "coerced speech" cavilling. That's just distracting nonsense.

Pregnancy is a biological process. You've had a model answer that you are happy with, so don't doubt yourself. If the project involves discussion of, or with, women with identities, I'm sure you can guide her there as to what will be appropriate terminology. It does matter that your student uses correct and clear terminology, first and foremost, and secondly there is no need to offend women by referring to them as pregnant people. So you are doing the right thing and she will thank you for it in years to come.

Don't coerce her speech.

No-one's job is at risk for saying "pregnant woman".

The only person who's position appears at even a little bit of risk is the OPs junior team member, who is using language her boss doesn't like.

She is correct if she is talking about identities, which as we all know don't have to to correlate with anything biological. I presume that the OP is talking about sex, not gender. Transmen, non-binary female people are all adult human females, ie women.

Explain that non-specific and unecessarily vague language can be confusing to people whose first language is not English, people who have learning disabilities or are neuro atypical, and older people.

Explain further that you are an inclusive company that does not condone exclusionary practices such as ableism, ageism or racism and therefore you would prefer that she use the simplest and most correct phraseology

As she is correct.