Oxfam tells staff: Stop saying mother and father

Oxfam has instructed staff to drop the words “mother” and “father” from their vocabulary and replace them with “parent” when describing family roles.

The charity said that allowances should be made for trans families that might not identify with the conventional roles of a man and woman in parenthood and that in such cases “parent” would be more appropriate.

The word parent describes “the role in raising children without directly ascribing gendered roles”, Oxfam said.

However, it added: “If trans parents have a preferred specified gender role, such as ‘mother’ or ‘father’, this should be respected. If unsure, it is more inclusive to use ‘parent’.”

The guidelines were issued in a 92-page Inclusive Language Guide made public this week. In it the charity gives what it says are sensitive alternatives when discussing physical disability, race, migration and mental health.

Terms it encourages staff to use include “is affected by” when describing people with a health problem and a “person with short stature” in place of dwarf. Using the term “is affected by”, the guide says, avoids defining people by their health issue and thus avoids negative connotations. It should be used in place of “is afflicted with, suffers from, is a victim of”.

Maya Forstater, 49, a women’s rights campaigner who was sacked for saying people cannot change their biological sex, mocked the guide on Twitter.

Posting screenshots of it, she said that the word mother was not meant to be inclusive: “It describes a specific thing. That’s what words are for.”

Responding to Oxfam’s advice on using “breastfeeding people” to remove any association with women or mothers, Forstater posted a sad emoji.

Oxfam said: “This guide is not prescriptive but helps authors communicate in a way that is respectful to the diverse range of people with which we work. We are proud of using inclusive language; we won’t succeed in tackling poverty by excluding marginalised groups.”