Oxford dictionary definition of ‘woman’ sexist, petition claims

Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition calling for Oxford dictionaries to change the “sexist” definition of “woman”, but not everyone agrees.

The petition, created by London women’s rights advocate Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, points out that when you search the word woman online, sites powered by Oxford list synonyms such as “bitch, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat, frail, bird, bint, biddy and filly”.

“These are the words which the Oxford’s English Dictionary online tells us mean the same as woman,” Ms Giovanardi wrote.

It also points to some “patronising” examples of common usage, which include “Ms September will embody the professional, intelligent yet sexy career woman” and “I told you to be home when I get home, little woman”.

“These examples show women as sex objects, subordinate and an irritation to men,” Ms Giovanardi said.

But Deborah Cameron, a language and communications professor at Oxford University, cautioned against “sanitising” dictionaries in the hope of making “a better world”.

“Modern dictionaries are descriptive: Their purpose isn’t to tell people how words should be used but rather to record how words actually are used by members of the relevant language community,” she wrote in an online response to the petition.

“The dictionary is essentially a record of what the lexicographers have found out by analysing a large … corpus of authentic English texts, produced by many different writers over time.”

While some racist and homophobic words have been culled from dictionaries and thesauruses in the past, rewriting the Oxford English Dictionary, which is a historical text meant for scholars, would be wrong, she argued.

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