Oxford English Dictionary updates definitions of 'woman', 'man' following sexism claims

This guy's clearly on board with the Oxford Dictionary's new gender-neutral sentence example for the word "housework".

For more than a century, it has chronicled the evolution of the English language, declaring that it "reflects rather than dictates" how it is used.

Now the Oxford Dictionary of English has acknowledged for the first time that a woman can be a "person's" wife, girlfriend or lover as opposed to only a "man's".

"Woman" was among dozens of words that saw their definitions updated for the modern age following a gender diversity review that concluded earlier this year.

The dictionary's editors launched the review in 2019 after a petition claimed that their definition of woman was sexist on the basis that it listed synonyms including wench, bint and b****.

The author of the petition called on Oxford University Press, the dictionary's publisher, to remove all phrases and definitions that "discriminate against and patronise women" as well as those which "connote men's ownership of women".

The petition, which gained over 30,000 signatures, also controversially claimed that "transgender woman" should be used as an example within the definition, to ensure that it is "representative of minorities".

'User feedback' prompts gender review

The Oxford Dictionary of English launched a gender review last year of its dictionary and thesaurus entries which it was in response to "user feedback" including the petition on the word "woman".

Its new definition of "woman" is longer and includes several new phrases such as "woman of the match", "woman of the moment" and "woman of the house".

It also features new working examples, including "a female member of a workforce, team, etc" as well as "with that money, a woman could buy a house and put two kids through college".

As for synonyms, "bint" and "b****" remain but now are labelled as "offensive" and "derogatory" respectively, while "wench" has been removed altogether.

The old definition of woman included "a man's wife, girlfriend or lover" but in the new one, this has been updated to read "a person's wife, girlfriend or female lover".

A similar change was made to the definition of the word man, which was also updated as part of the review.

Previously the definition included "a husband or lover" but this was changed to "a person's husband, boyfriend or male lover".

'How real people use English'

A host of other words had their definitions and examples updated during the gender review, including housework and high-maintenance.

Previously an example for housework was "she still does all the housework" but this was replaced with "I was busy doing housework when the doorbell rang".

The original example for high-maintenance was "if Martin could keep a high-maintenance girl like Tania happy, he must be doing something right" but this was updated with "I freely admit to being high-maintenance".

Oxford University Press said that the Oxford Dictionary of English is "driven solely by evidence of how real people use English in their daily lives".

A spokesman said: "We have undertaken an extensive review of the dictionary and thesaurus entries, and usage examples, for 'woman' and for many related terms.

"We have expanded the dictionary coverage of 'woman' with more examples and idiomatic phrases which depict women in a positive and active manner.

"We have ensured that offensive synonyms or senses are clearly labelled as such and only included where we have evidence of real world usage."

They added that labels such as "offensive" and "dated" have been added as a precursor to more terms for women and girls, in particular those that refer to appearance and sexual behaviour.