HSE removes "women" from cervical screening pages

[SecondRow]

Stumbled across this on twitter. The page has recently been revised, it's all "people with a cervix".
twitter.com/Salwicklow/status/1305967737563422720?s=20

It's highly likely that the supposedly inclusive language came about through lobbying. Whose attention do we need to bring this to to get the HSE to add women back in? It needs more traction on Irish Twitter...

Woman isn’t a bad word. Everyone knows what they mean. This is purely pandering to ‘not hurt feelings’.

There's a few problems, Ria.

Lots of women don't know what the cervix is, would not know that "people with a cervix" is a call-out to them. Women with English as second language, educationally disadvantaged, learning disabilities. This applies to quite a large number, the charity Jo's Trust found over 40% of women.

Of those of us who do already know we have a cervix, many dislike being addressed as a bodily part instead of what we are commonly known as, women. It seems to problematize women's bodies.

The HSE have waffled a bit about gender neutral language. The point of that is usually so that between women and men, no one sex is disadvantaged or discriminated against. But in a service that only applies to one sex, this doesn't apply. Among those of the female sex who'd need cervical screening, a very small number may identify as trans men or non binary, and everyone agrees the HSE should respect that. The other 99% or so, quite simply, are women.

@RiaOverTheRainbow

I'm struggling to see the problem with 'people with cervixes' vs 'women, girls (not including those who don't have cervixes for any reason), trans men and non-binary people'. It's a lot quicker to write.

It's about ensuring those who need to understand who "anyone with cervix" means, it's not about how quick it is to write.

In fact any content editor worth their salt know that the more time taken the better. Writing in plain English takes effort because it's taken the effort out of trying to understand.

Also let's not forget the HSE aren't doing this to to be inclusive. If they were, eiither all gender identities would be listed or none would be but we have references to solely to men on other parts on the website. On this section there is mention of trans men and trans women specifically about cervical cancer. So "women" have been excluded.

If it needs to be "anyone with a cervix" (which to be inclusive it does) then can list who this means and what a cervix is

Anyone with a cervix between the age of 25 and 65 should go for regular cervical screening when it’s due. The cervix is the opening to your womb from your vagina. You will have a cervix, unless you were born without one or have had a hysterectomy, and you are a:

• woman
• trans man
• non-binary person (who was born female)

(And so on)

Then from then on refer to "you".

Only time specific genders are then mentioned is about contact and being registered.

Also, this inclusive language needs to be applied across the entire site, not just by replacing the word women.

(On a tangent, the editing of the site is bad, even the removal of the word women is haphazard.)

I admit it hadn't occurred to me that not everyone knows what a cervix is, that's a very good point. I like @CherryValanc's suggested wording.

There's an additional problem that I've heard mentioned in relation to the phrase "people with a cervix" because some women who have had their cervix removed will have something called a "vault smear". They don't seem to be mentioned or included at all. The term "women" would include them.

On literacy the HSE's own site says that 38% of the population struggle with health literacy. 1 in 6 in the population have general literacy issues. It is a really significant problem. It seems contradictory that the HSE would produce something with so little clarity when they know this. For any woman new to the English language the chances of them recognising the word woman will be a lot higher than them recognising cervix.

Have voted.
I'm also concerned that they will only now test your smear sample for abnormal cells only if you first test positive for HPV

On twitter, someone's shown this photo of the HSE info pack which replaces 'women' with 'people'

twitter.com/FlimFlamFran/status/1314498446913613824

and another twitterer helpfully showed the HSE prostate info page which is full of the words 'man'