Supreme Court Combats Gender Stereotypes In Handbook: Banishes Words Like ‘Eve-Teasing’, ‘Housewife’

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday launched a handbook to go after gender stereotypes prejudicial to women. Words like eve-teasing, housewife, and affair may soon be out of the legal lexicon. “This is to assist judges and the legal community to identify, and understand stereotypes about women in legal discourse,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said while releasing the ‘Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes’.

The handbook contains a list of 43 gender-unjust terms that should be avoided by judges and the legal community in their orders, judgments, pleadings and submissions. The handbook suggests alternative words and phrases. The SC looked inward and sought to begin the clean-up from within the system.

Calling language critical to the life of the law, the CJI in his foreword to the 30-page handbook said many words or phrases used in legal discourse by both lawyers and judges, reflect archaic ideas with patriarchal undertones. The handbook red flags words such as prostitute, whore, keep, mistress, slut, fallen woman, provocative clothing, woman of loose morals/easy virtue/promiscuous woman/wanton woman.

Prepared by a panel headed by Calcutta High Court judge Moushumi Bhattacharya, the handbook also points out common but incorrect reasoning patterns based on gender stereotypes.  Common stereotypes about women are those based on their so-called inherent characteristics; on gender roles; and related to sex, sexuality, and sexual violence. For example. one stereotype is that women are overly emotional, illogical and cannot take decisions. But gender does not determine or influence a person’s capacity for rational thought, it reasons.

Incorrect language and their alternatives in the handbook

• Adulteress: Woman engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage
• Affair: Relationship outside of marriage
• Bastard: Non-marital child or child whose parents were not married
• Biological sex/biological male/biological female: Sex assigned at birth
• Born a girl/boy: Assigned female/male at birth
• Career woman: Woman
• Carnal intercourse: Sexual intercourse
• Chaste woman: Woman
• Child prostitute: Child who has been trafficked
• Dutiful wife/faithful wife/good or obedient wife: Wife
• Eve-teasing: Street sexual harassment
• Fallen woman: Woman
• Forcible rape: Rape
• Hooker: Sex worker
• Housewife: Homemaker
• Indian woman/Western woman: Woman
• Marriageable age: A woman who has attained the legal age required to marry
• Prostitute: Sex worker
• Provider/Breadwinner: Employed or earning
• Unwed Mother: Mother