Re: Political Correctness Re: Manmonth or Peoplemonth?

[Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- BDK -dot- NET>]

Eric Dunn wrote:

> A great many people are grown up enough to realise that in
> the english language Man (as a species) includes both male and female
>

And a few less people seem to realize that a bias can be systemic,
(embedded in the language itself) and therefore requires conscious
thought to change. Arguably, Man is the species (and then only
colloquially), because men count, and women are adjuncts, a
sub-category. Not good enough, y'dig?

As a technical writer, I have to wonder, if we are not responsible for
it, then who is? Who do you think writes the dictionary? Yes, "person
hours" is reactionary and silly. "Work hours", or a term that does not
even remind us that we are dealing with a political/gender issue is
preferable.

> "On another note, how is a man-month defined? Without knowing how many
> workdays in a month and how many hours in a day, how do you define the
> term?"
>
A work-[time unit] is the amount of work a single person gets done in
the specified time period (assuming everyone does the same amount of
work). There can be many more work hours in a day than real hours,
because more than one person can be doing the work. Capiche?

Christopher Kowalchuk


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