Members of the Canadian military presenting arms
Photo Credit: MCpl Letourneau, CAF/DND
Esprit de Corps Magazine February 2021 // Volume 28 Issue 1
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 23
By Military Woman
Question:
What types of things can the defence community do to ensure it is a welcoming and respectful place for all of its members?
Answer:
One thing everyone can do is to be open and curious to learn more about what inclusivity is, why it matters, and how to use inclusive language.
To the credit of the Royal Canadian Navy, it recently changed its use of the word "seaman" to "sailor", a more inclusive and accurate term. This is likely to be a smart move from a recruiting standpoint given studies that show when the suffix "man" is used in contexts that are meant to refer to the general population, the listener/reader is likely to picture men-only verses mixed-sex groups. Words like "seaman", therefore, may have unconsciously served to perpetuate outdated stereotypes that Navy jobs are only for men.
Indeed, what would you think if you overheard someone saying to a mixed-sex group of young cadets, "Every future military leader needs to develop his communication skills."? Can you see how a more inclusionary choice of words might be to instead say, "Every future military leader needs to develop their communication skills." By simply switching out the word "his" for the word "their", every cadet present without exception can now envision themself to be that future military leader. (And yes, "they/them/their" is now considered a grammatically correct option for singular pronoun use).
Inclusivity can be actively reinforced through deliberate and precise word choice. Precision helps avoid inaccurate or unclear communication that, in turn, can lead to misunderstandings, confusion and result in a sense of exclusion. An example is the use of sex qualifiers. It's appropriate to add a sex or gender qualifier, such as "woman" or "man", to neutral terms like soldier or veteran when knowingly describing single-sex or gender situations or directly comparing one group to another, but otherwise may not be needed. Language can also unintentionally imply a hierarchy in value of one group over the other, if one group is always listed first. For this reason, inclusive language norms would support the defence leaders that consciously and deliberately say both "men and women" and its reverse ordering of nouns "women and men".
Studies have also shown that using non-inclusive language can cause harm, and that employers need to factor this into their workplace policies and practices. In the case of the federal government, it uses Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) as a tool to help identify how different people may experience inclusion to workspace culture, programs, and initiatives differently.
According to GBA+, the "plus" is there to remind us that intersectionality is about more than sex (biological) and gender (socio-cultural). Commonly cited "plus" characteristics include race, age, religion, language, ethnicity, income, sexual orientation, geography, education, and disability. Especially for military and veteran contexts, additional categories include marital status, family status, years served, time-period served in, rank, occupation and hazard exposures in Canada and abroad/deployed.
When considering these compounding factors together, one more easily appreciates how individuals may experience the same event, workplace, or government policy very differently. Present times and events have further heightened the awareness around the significant magnitude of impact variability from our diverse individual intersectionality factors. Many GBA+ factors are still evolving concepts, making it challenging to keep up with. One way to approach such a complex topic is through the lens of language, which can provide many daily opportunities to practice being curious about inclusivity. It's now commonplace for us all to experience moments of uncertain of what the "correct" words or phrase to use is.
Embracing these, often awkward, moments as opportunities to "correct and continue” learning a new skill set is encouraged. With continued practice, checking for inclusive language use can become as second nature as checking for grammar or spelling errors.
If interested to learn more about inclusive language, recommended resources include the writing style books from the American Psychology Association, Queen's University, University of Victoria, and the Government's Termium website.
