Sexist

Understandable but she is allowed to request a certain gender for appointments.

Ranks are policy but constable is a position of appointment… A Constable is a servant of the Queen directly answerable to law under oath. An officer is a public servant - ranks such as sergeant - Inspector can be dumped and changed. They are all Constables.

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Puzzled me for a moment, then I worked it out. Of course; PC Plod = Police Constable Plod. So if they’re all PCs, they’re all Constables. :+1:

Indeed, so my point being that if a vulnerable woman was living in a house or flat and wished to have her smoke detector checked she would call the number and request a firewoman attended to do the check instead of a firefighter.

(Same applies if it was a vulnerable man requesting a fireman or for that matter full vice-versa)

You mention the Queen, that’s a female job description…:man_shrugging::man_shrugging::man_shrugging::man_shrugging:

She would ask for a female firefighter because the other term implies that only a man can do that job.

Can a female firefighter not also be known as a firewoman?

Her job is “Monarch” which is gender neutral.

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I had never heard of constable as a position of appointment. Did a bit of googling and you’re right, thanks! :slight_smile: it is a little confusing having the lowest rank of the service named the same as the position of appointment though :smiley:

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But she is mostly referred to as the Queen. :princess:

This also applies to the prince’s and princesses further down the line.

The lowest rank and the highest rank with other labels in between :thinking:

It might be an outdated term but as long as its used as a descriptor and not a prerequisite or that one is more qualified then I see no issue with it personally.

I would compare it to saying superman, maybe the his job title is super hero but he’s still a super man.

Talk to people in a way they like to be spoken to, if you don’t know play it safe and use the gender neutral term but if you know your audience then use the option you think works best.
If saying firewoman allows your daughter to visualise herself as one more easily and inspires her then I say go for it.

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100%

And I would hope that she doesn’t spend years listening to people talk about firemen and for her to have that seed planted that her gender means she can’t do certain jobs because that’s the danger and that’s why language is so important.

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The beauty of language allows us to have multiple ways to describe things.

Used in the right way I don’t think saying “firewoman” is any worse than saying “daughter”.

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A sergeant (that’s a rank) still holds the office of Constable. It’s the same all the way up to Chief Constable.

I’m pretty much a single father with 2 children that live with me, I have a recently new partner who does not live with us, I think in all fairness I am very much part if this relatively new genderless job description act, 30 years ago the children always lived with the mother and nowadays it is not uncommon for men to be the main parent, I’m happy to be called a single father, a single parent or anything that fits. I fully encourage both my kids to follow their dream regardless of what has went before.

I would argue nurse is not gender neutral as male nurses are almost always referred to as a male nurses.

There are sisters, instead of making them gender neutral male ones are called charge nurses but this varies.

Clearly some improvements to be made here.

The public only needs terms they understand so ‘manager’ etc would work much better.

Really? I’ve never heard anyone make that distinction

In fairness, I’d say it pretty common to describe a man who is a nurse as a male nurse.