A Government minister has said there is nothing “trivial” about her call for an end to the use of gendered titles like 'chairman' and 'spokesman.'
The Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Josepha Madigan has said it is time to examine a range of everyday words to see if they are creating an “unconscious bias.”
To illustrate her point, she suggested that ‘The Kerryman’ consider a name change to make it more gender neutral.
On Lunchtime Live this morning she said she said the call was about finding “ways to build greater equality in our society.”
“To me, this is not a trivial issue,” she said. “Just for the record, this is not about the Kerryman newspaper.
“It is never up to me, as a Government minister, to tell media what to do. It is simply an interesting example.
“The terms and titles we use and the words we use in our everyday parlance have been created at particular points in history. They reflect the values of that time and language, as we know, changes all the time.
“So, we shouldn’t be afraid to look at these terms again when our social values have changed.”
Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae is seen outside the Dáil in 2016. Picture by: RollingNews.ieOn Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae dismissed Minister Madigan’s point as “balderdash of the worst type” and claimed the debate was an example of “political correctness gone mad.”
Minister Madigan said she was “really glad” to see she had opened up a debate on the issue.
“It is really interesting to see the strong opinions that this conversation has elicited but it shouldn’t be divisive,” she said.
“This is about challenging the status quo. It is about really interrogating the etymology of words as well.
“If you think about words like chairman, spokesman, weatherman, taxman, fireman – I mean would a man like to be called a firewoman in the fire department?
“This is about looking at everything and seeing if we can discuss ways to build greater equality in our society. It is not something to shy away from. The language we use impacts on the way we see the world.”
She said the words we use every day, “give a very strong message to our society about what we value and what we don’t.”
"We can take them for granted, we can use them casually without thought and I think it is really good we are having a conversation around it," she said.
"Just because we have had a word in our vocabulary for centuries doesn’t mean that it is correct and doesn’t mean it reflects society now as it stands."
The Dublin Rathdown TD noted that the current Dáil has only a 22% female and warned that, as a society, that gap is something that viewed as being normal.
“It shouldn’t be normal and if we don’t change things and how we describe our toys, our jobs, our public services, then we are not progressive and then we don’t change,” she said.
