Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Junkomama]

Hello, teachers.

"Our society has been trying to decrease gender gap, but it is not gender-free yet."
Is this sentence acceptable?

Thank you in advance!
Junkomama

[pugachevV]

I suppose it's acceptable if you say the gender gap, although technically, gender is a grammatical term.
The word you should use when talking about men and women is sex.
But apparently that has become a dirty word.
I trust you have not fainted.

[Anuradha Chepur]

If I may add that somehow I feel it's more about how certain collocations/terminology evolve, than the hesitation to use the word sex?

For instance:

Sex ratio, sex determination (of the foetus), unisex (perfume, T-shirt, etc.), sex-change operation, sex-linked (behaviour), sex characteristic, etc.

but,

gender inequality, gender bias, gender identity, grammatical gender

As for the sentence, you might want to say

"Our society has been trying to decrease sexism, but it is not successful yet."

[Junkomama]

Thank you so much for your answer, pugachevV-san!
Thanks a loy for your comment, Anuradha-san!
I think I got it.

Regards,
Junkomama