Removing the word 'woman' from maternity policies

[sesquipedalia]

I'm responsible for the policies etc at work. I have been updating all our polices this week, including the (generous!) maternity and paternity polices and asked a junior member of staff to proof read them for me.

She has come back stating that we should remove 'she/he' throughout and replace with 'they', which I can see as reasonable in a general policy. But she has then expanded this and said we should ensure that our mat/pat policies are 'not gendered' and remove the word woman/man entirely. She has referenced the recent House of Commons Maternity Bill to bolster her case.

I strongly disagree and see this as erasure of women and denial of biology - does anyone have any useful points to explain my gut reaction to her?

I guess it depends.
The bits that are to do with being pregnant and giving birth should be 'she', 'woman' and 'mother'
The bits to do with the other half should be 'partner' and he/she
Bits which might be to do with adoption too might have to be whatever the legislation says about that.

Yes, see Hansard for what the House of Lords had to say about that bill!

Maternity leave is gendered. Mothers (and expectant mothers) have specific legal rights that do not apply to fathers.

what the house of commons maternity bill vote which endorsed the House of Lords amendment to use mother or expectant mother?

hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-03-01/debates/AC381A72-B091-41E4-9388-96CB284F83A5/details

Oh God, in a moment of blissful oblivion I forgot to anticipate "but men can be mothers and women can be fathers and also night can be day"...

Teeninustests - the 'other half' is never gendered, we have happily out gay men and women at the company and partners are what ever shade of sexuality people want. But the person giving birth should be referred to as a woman (in my opinion). Adoption is not gendered either.

bourbonne I'll look that up! Just as you say, I'm hanging my hat on the specific legal rights that mothers have as a solid reason for my stance. I'm happy that the (male) Directors of the company are in total agreement with me - but its very much a split along age grounds (over/under 40)

Plain English would favour woman/mother when talking about maternity. For adoption/shared parental then she/he or they.

If you are senior - make it your call. 'Thank you for your input. You have made some good points and I have amended accordingly. I have decided to keep she/woman/mother when referring to maternity as I think it is clearer that way.'

Presumably your 'paternity' leave though is 'other parent'? The non-birth mother in a lesbian couple is presumably entitled to parental leave?

Pregnancy and Maternity are a protected a characteristic in the equality act 2010 so I would have thought it is important to use that language in policies

A junior team member says they ‘should’... I’d suggest she needs training on the EA and keep her gender politics to twitter.

All good points - and good phrases that are more succinct than the waffle I was coming out with. This is my call and I'm not afraid to take it, but I want to educate as to why I have made that decision too.

Not that it will make any difference with a certain woke peer group.

Did she not see how that ended with the Maternity Bill???

You could add a small print sentence at the end stating that the maternity policy uses the words "mother" and "she" throughout, but applies equally to any employee who has the protected characteristic of "gender reassignment" under the Equality Act 2010 who [is pregnant/gives birth to a baby]. [delete as appropriate depending on the wording of your policy]

The paternity policy probably would make sense to reword as it will apply to lesbians. There are a lot more lesbian marriages/civil partnerships than there are transmen with GRCs who have given birth (2 in the U.K. ever IIRC). My understanding is that "paternity leave" is still the preferred term though to avoid confusion with other forms of leave.

Mother is a non-gendered legal term thanks to Freddy McConnell (who’d have thought we’d have something to be grateful to FM for!). All who give birth - irrespective of how they identify are the legal mother for the birth certificate.

Isn’t there different policies/legislation for women / Mother’s that there is for other parents (dads, adoptive parents) though. So for example women who give birth have to by law be off for two weeks maternity don’t they? So sense you need to be clear about who each policy applies to and and the clear mandate for that would be woman and mother wouldn’t it?

I think it is always best to try to go for an outwoking approach. Say that you don’t feel comfortable with that approach because if we are ever to achieve true equality, this means being inclusive of everyone as they are rather than attempting to erase difference. So the language of she/her/mother is in there in order to be fully inclusive of this (majority) group, but you can include language that would accommodate others who don’t identify as such. Invite her to help come up with other ways to add additional inclusive language that don’t erase difference. Ta da!

You can tell her quite plainly that she is flying in the face of government guidelines. Both Houses, Lords and Commons, have debated this via the Maternity Bill, and it is very definitely accepted that it should be a sexed / gendered (if you must) policy.

You can find the details by googling it and Hansard.

Thanks - all good ammunition. I especially like the fact that the Government bill she referred to actually ended up proving my point.....

It might be worth pointing to the wording of section 18 of the Equality Act OP which uses "woman" throughout.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/18

It's important that the policies are consistent with the relevant legislation.

Thank you Aha85

What world is it that I have to fight to include 'woman' in a discussion about maternity?

I honestly feel that I'm going to wake up one day and find this is all a bad dream!

You'll be happy to know that the House of Lords said much the same, as a group.

The Hansard should set her straight.

hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-02-22/debates/EF8A7974-0A9C-4F17-B9DC-B7D26E52D52F/MinisterialAndOtherMaternityAllowancesBill

Placemarking because I'm expecting to have this debate soon. I'm expecting that the HoL debate will be helpful. I'm surprised your colleague referenced it Op, given the outcome!

It's really important that maternity leave is a women's rights issue. The women's liberation movement fought for it because it was necessary for female emancipation - one of a number of pieces of legislation that have allowed women to take up a much fuller & more equal role in society & the economy.

Some of those laws were aimed at accommodating the female reproductive role (contraception on NHS, maternity leave, breastfeeding at work policies, making it illegal to ask 'are you planning to have a baby?' at interview). Some of those laws were aimed at equalising the subordinate role within the family & broader society (married women's property, votes for women, making it possible to keep your job on marriage, equal pay, being able to have a mortgage in your own name).

The fact that women give birth is intrinsincly linked to the economic & social disadvantages that had to be countered by these legal changes (eg traditional social role of women within the home, being the second earner etc). Maternity leave is smack bang in the middle of all these adjustments that enable our (ongoing) emancipation as women. Not every woman uses it, & a tiny number of mothers who do use it don't self describe as women, but it's still an important part of rights for women & mothers. The rag bag of body parts & random bodily functions method of addressing these rights will be much less effective.

Your junior colleague could do with a history of women's lib.

Surely the bottom line is your maternity and paternity policies differ and the Maternity policy will only apply to women. Really important to think about language in relation to entitlements that apply to same sex couples. But the Maternity policy will always apply to women.
Your colleague sounds like a pain in the arse.

I got quite angry on an HR Facebook group I’m in a few months ago when I was advised that woman and maternity should be avoided as they were transphobic.

I refuse to neutralise maternity policies. So there. No one has complained yet!

If it’s a maternity policy it deals with women. In this sense ‘woman’ is an Inclusive word that refers to sex, not gender.

If on the other hand you are writing policies for parents or re: parental leave sex is irrelevant.

I refuse to neutralise maternity policies

And they aren’t neutral because the rules for parental leave and maternity leave are not the same.