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 |