Recently, Google announced a new feature of including gender-neutral terms by prompting users to avoid specifically gendered terms. This new feature will be coming up with Smart Canvas, a collaborative tool designed with Google Workspace to make working between Documents, Sheets, and Slides platforms more flexible, interactive, and intelligent.
You can check out Google’s announcement here:
According to what Google General Manager Javier Soltero presented, the updated style guide being sensitive will recommend users to not only use gender-inclusive pronouns but also use gender-neutral language. Thus, instead of sentences such as “there are some crazy outliers in the data“, the style guide will prompt “there are some baffling outliers in the data.” Swapping “man-hours” for “person-hours”, and suggesting “it slows down the service” instead of “it cripples the service“, are some more updates. Basically, if we are writing words that are gender-biased or more inclined towards masculinity, Google will give encourage us to choose a non-gendered alternative, which is better than committing any potential offense.
Some more stylistic suggestions by Google for you all to start taking a step towards using gender-neutral terms are “chairman” to “chairperson”, “policeman” to “police officer”, “mankind” to “humankind”, and “mailman” to “mail carrier.” Google is already ready to curb down gender biases. Let’s end this toxicity and support others without being gender-biased. Remember, we are humans before anything else, and it’s important to be more inclusive for a harmonious environment around us.
