Feminism alters reference book
“Roget’s Thesaurus,” the reference book that has “improved, refined and purified” the work of writers for the last 13b years, has bowed to feminism. In a new edition to be published this week, the “Sunday Times” says words such as “mankind,” “countryman” and “rich man” have been replaced by "humankind,” "country dweller” and "rich person.” The editor responsible for the huge overhaul — more than 20,000 words have been added or reclassified — is Susan Lloyd, who spent 3Vs
years updating the thesaurus and cleansing it of any male chauvinist tendencies. The result, says the "Sunday Times,” is impressive. According to Ms Lloyd, aged 41, and married with two children, she dropped the sexist words to make the language less misleading. “In Roget’s day if you used the word ‘caveman 1 people probably had a mental picture of cavewomen and cavechildren as' well as cavemen,” she said. ' “But research has shown that if you use the word ‘caveman’ today, people think of men, not women.”
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Press, 13 April 1982, Page 14
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167Feminism alters reference book Press, 13 April 1982, Page 14
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