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14.08 Elimination of Sexual Stereotyping, Full range of human characteristics and situations

All people, including women as individuals or as a group, should be treated with respect and dignity. To this end they should be depicted as living and working in a variety of circumstances and assuming a broad range of responsibilities.

  • Avoid gratuitous reference to physical or other characteristics and undue emphasis on traditional roles:

    Dr. and Mrs. Rolfe
    or
    Dr. Erica and Mr. John Bruce

    not

    Dr. Rolfe and his charming blonde wife Dora
    or
    Mr.
    John Bruce and his doctor wife

  • Do not suggest that men are the norm in certain situations and women in others. Show that members of each sex are now filling roles that were traditionally the preserve of the other sex:

    Parent and child
    not
    Mother and child

    People (or Families) are suffering increasingly from the burden of taxation.
    not
    Men and their families are suffering increasingly from the burden of taxation.

    Professionals, their spouses and their children
    not
    Professionals, their wives and their children

    the average worker
    or
    the average wage-earner
    not
    the average working man

  • Ensure that women as a group are treated with respect, particularly in the role of homemaker. Refer to "women re-entering the work force," not to "women going back to work." Do not refer to "working women" or "working wives" in contrast to homemakers; use the expression "women working outside the home" or an equivalent.