The change happened at Oxford following a petition with over 30,000 signatures
After facing a lot of criticism, Oxford University Press (OUP) has changed the definition of the word ‘woman’. The change happened following a petition with over 30,000 signatures which claimed that the dictionary was sexist. The words ‘bitch’ and ‘bint’, are no longer listed as synonyms for the word woman.
The petition demanded that all the terms that stressed men’s ownership over women or discriminated and patronised them, should be eliminated. Additionally, the definition of woman was to be enlarged to include examples representative of minorities such as transgender women and lesbian women.
Several labels have also been assigned to terms categorised as ‘derogatory’, ‘offensive’ or ‘dated’.
The updated definition in the Oxford Dictionary now acknowledges that a woman can be “a person’s wife, girlfriend, or female lover, rather than only a man’s.”
The entry for “man” was also amended to include the same gender-neutral terminology, while many other terms relating to sexual attractiveness and activity have been revised.
According to an Oxford University Press spokeswoman, the changes were implemented after an “extensive review of entries related to woman and many other related terms.”
Women’s Aid and the Women’s Equality party had supported the campaign this year on International Women’s Day. They had signed an open letter and demanded Oxford University Press (OUP) to change the sexist definitions.
“Bitch is not a synonym for woman. It is dehumanising to call a woman a bitch. It is but one sad, albeit extremely damaging, example of everyday sexism. And that should be explained clearly in the dictionary entry used to describe us,” the letter read. The campaign was started by Maria Beatrice Giovanardi. She called the inclusion of gender-neutral terminology “a huge step forward for the LGBTQI people”.
