Editorial Conventions in Health Education Materials What to do about dads and pronouns

She or he read our February newsletter. And unsubscribed. She or he wrote

that the posting and the included excerpt from Beginnings Parents Guide is

sexist because the text does not address fathers and it does not use the

gender neurtral “he or she” in referring to the baby.

These are two sticky issues for editors and reviewers of health education

materials. Decisions need to be driven by consideration of the intended

readers and ease of reading and comprehension.

At Beginnings Guides and the Center for Health Literacy Promotion we

continuously debate to what degree to include fathers in parent education

and programs that intend to support child development. My decision as

editor is based on data from home visitation and parent eduction programs

that have participated in our research.

We have two databases now, totaling 2675 parent child dyads. The data are

reported by the practitioners on the families in their case loads (we have

no access to identifying information). In each database, fathers /male

caregivers make up less than 1% of the parents. That does not indicate

fathers are not active and important in the children’s lives. But the data

do show clearly that it is still mothers who are the primary caregivers.

And so Beginnings Guidesare addressed to mothers.

I can understand our unhappy reader’s objection about the excerpt that

refers to the baby using the male pronoun he. If she or he were more

familiar with Beginnings, she or he would see that the convention is to

alternate the use of he and she in logical ‘chunks’ of text. This avoids

cluttering up the page, slowing reading, and interfering with comprehension

by repeating the awkward and unfamiliar he or she or s/he, as I have done

here for illustration. Another way around the pronouns is to use Baby

with a capital B as you would use a name.

I’m sad to loose a reader, and I appreciate his or her passion for equality,

and that she or he brought these issues to the forefront for reconsideration. ss