CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY

Guidelines for Gender-Inclusive Language in English — United Nations

Revision 29e65cb6-4911-4bbc-bf6a-5d1405737f3e · 10/6/2026, 3:31:59 PM UTC

Key: un-gender-inclusive-language-guidelines
Type: webpage
Container: United Nations
Publisher: United Nations
URL: https://www.un.org/en/gender-inclusive-language/guidelines.shtml

Raw CSL JSON

{
  "URL": "https://www.un.org/en/gender-inclusive-language/guidelines.shtml",
  "type": "webpage",
  "title": "Guidelines for Gender-Inclusive Language in English",
  "language": "en",
  "publisher": "United Nations",
  "container-title": "United Nations"
}

Claims

make-gender-visible

The UN guidelines say gender-marked pairs such as "he or she" should be used sparingly, and that two gendered words (such as "boys and girls") are appropriate when it matters to make gender visible.

Locator: section: Making gender visible
neutral-alternatives

The UN guidelines advise replacing generic masculine terms with neutral ones (for example "humankind" for "mankind" and "staffing" for "manpower") and list strategies including plural they/their, relative pronouns such as "who", omitting gendered words, passive voice where appropriate, and the pronoun "one".

Locator: section: Gender-neutral language strategies

Available in

en - English