Conservative-run Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council has voted in favour of dropping masculine and feminine terms and will now adopt gender-neutral language for senior positions to avoid offending the large diversity of genders.
The chairman and vice-chairman of committees are now being referred to as "chair" and "vice-chair," while people will be referred to as "they" in the future rather than "he" or "she" or gender-sensitive "Mr or Madam chairman."
This proposal was put forward last year by Poole People Councilor L.J Evans with the support of Labour councillor Lewis Allison – they believe that all masculine or feminine terms are "unnecessary" and that the move will help to prevent "reinforced historic gender stereotypes."
Members supported the change as part of a number of alterations to the BCP Council constitution, which was voted through after amendments on other subjects at a full council meeting earlier this month.
However, another counsellor said things had "gone too far" and labelled the adoption of gender-neutral pronouns as "nonsense."