If you are a real developer you most likely have already been in a situation, where a group was welcomed with the phrase hey guys – on IRC, mailing lists or even in personal talk. Some of you might share the experience to not feel being addressed by this salutation. This situations leave me personally a little angry, because I don’t like to be ignored. As I am a calm and non-aggressive person my usual reaction is to just ignore the speaker as well and to behave as if the salutation didn’t take place (as if nobody talked to me). Unfortunately this way most people won’t notice they did something wrong, because they really aren’t aware of the exclusive nature of their language.

Indeed there are a plenty of alternatives which do include all genders: People, folks, fellows, mates, buddies, pals … I’d even accept homies, although it originates in homeboy, but might also come from homegirl. Whatever is special about a group but valid for all members of that group may be used: hey hackers, freaks, late risers … are some of those, which would appeal to me. But I wouldn’t use late risers whenever there is an early bird in the group

So what about the option to add some female counterpart to the male part of the phrase to be more inclusive or to even point out mixed gender? We discussed guys and girls for our job announcement to make clear, that there are females among us. But the original meaning of girl is that of a female child – young, premature and dependent. Therefor it is not a proper equivalent to guy, rather the complement to boy, and many adult females don’t like to be called girl, at least not in a professional environment. The alternative being more similiar to guy in meaning could be gal, but that word is just as little a perfect match – some consider it sounding ugly (but does guy sound beautiful? – not really), it is not common in all english-speaking regions, it is considered old-fashioned in some parts of the world.

So we thought again about girl, because there seems to be a shift in its meaning recently. Starting with the riot grrrl movement in the 90s, third-wave feminism reclaimed the word. The derogatory use of the word girl was objected by removing the vowel and duplicating the r. That made-up word with the unspeakable growling sound said: You call us girls – yes, we might be girls, but not in the sense that you think of (well-behaved, handsome, neat) – here comes our own definition of girlishness. It was a loud and angry call for respect.

Apart from the fact that being called something and call oneself something are two different things, some say that the redefinition of the word has advanced so far, that being called a girl today and being a self-confident, respected, notable person isn’t an antagonism anymore. Another trend in our world is the prolongation of the youth up to the age of thirty-something. That also might be a reason, why the term girl nowadays seems to also include older females, which are young at heart. But seriously: Can you think of a wise, experienced woman with white hair, telling fascinationg stories about her rich life and would you still call her a girl? I doubt.

To finally come to the point after this excursion into linguistic history: In most cases pointing out gender differences is unnecessary and should be avoided. Mixed gender is best expressed by neutral wording. If the group we are talking to is named and described as exactly as necessary, but as general as possible, then for sure all girls, boys, guys, gals, women, men and everyone who doesn’t fit any of those schemes, but who feels involved in the description will be encouraged to read, listen, answer and apply. And needless to repeat, the term guys alone is a no-go, as it excludes people who might be our target audience, but at the same time it’s way too general.