Council constitution becomes more gender equal – but war still rages on
A council’s male-dominated language has been replaced with more female and Lgbtq-friendly terms, reports Kerry Ashdown, but one councillor questioned why the term ‘chairman’ survived the cull
COUNCILLORS have voted to sweep away male-dominated pronouns in their constitution to make it more inclusive for female and non-binary residents.
References to ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ will be replaced with ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’ as part of changes approved at Stafford Borough Council’s annual council meeting.
But councillor Gillian Pardesi, who called for the addition of female pronouns alongside male ones at a previous discussion of the constitution review, raised concerns that not all gendered references had been changed.
She said: “I have to say the fact that references to ‘chairman’ and ‘chairmen’ remain in our constitution makes a mockery of our equality and diversity policy.”
Councillor Marnie Phillips put forward the proposal to use nonbinary pronouns as members were asked to approve the constitution amendments at the annual meeting.
She said: “With regards to the review of the constitution, I do support the changes. However, I wish to raise an amendment to the proposal to replace all references to ‘he, him, his’ to ‘he/she, him/her or his/her’.
“As an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) ally, I am conscious that our constitution should be representative of all members of the community and that includes non-binary. To ensure that council members of the future from Stafford borough’s LGBTQ community are comfortable with the terminology that’s used, I would like to propose replacing those references of he/she, him/her and his/her with they, their and them.” The amendment was seconded by councillor Jonathan Price. Labour member Angela Loughran also supported the amendment. But she added: “I attended the special resources committee meeting to discuss the review of the constitution and I recall councillor Pardesi proposed amending all references to ‘he, him, his’ to he or she, him or her and his and hers.
“Some of the members of the Conservative group muttered about political correctness going mad.
“However, now the Conservative group is presenting an amendment to Councillor Pardesi’s initial recommendation.
“We know the amendment before us would not be here unless members of the Conservative group had agreed to it at a Conservative group meeting.
“I must now congratulate councillor Phillips for encouraging her more churlish – perhaps Luddite – fellow councillors in the Conservative group to move into the present day and for using councillor Pardesi’s initial proposal to bring the language in Stafford Borough Council’s constitution to a level which is more representative to all members of the community living in Stafford borough.
“I hope perhaps, in future, members of the Conservative group will be a bit more gracious and less dismissive of proposals presented from members of the Labour group and other political parties.”