The Government Accountability Office, a top U.S. government watchdog, has issued a memo urging employees to not use gendered language.
Leaked memos obtained by The Daily Mail, instruct employees to not use male and female terms in the workplace.
The chief diversity management officer of the GAO, which examines federal government spending, had the memo issued in October 2022, which was posted on the agency’s intranet.
The memo is a “style guide” to prevent the use of “non-inclusive terminology,” urging the GAO’s 3,100 employees to avoid “wording that diminishes anyone’s dignity.”
“Because meaning and connotations can change rapidly, we should not rely solely on precedent (GAO or otherwise) but should consider consulting early in an engagement with individuals and groups who are within scope of the work,” according to the memo, which recommends using alternative words that are not gender specific.
Thee alternatives include “artificial” as opposed to “man-made”; “workforce,” instead of “manpower”; and “crewed,” rather than “manned.”