ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques that can be adopted by drafters who are required to abandon the practice of using masculine pronouns in reliance on the implicit inclusion of their feminine equivalent. Gender-neutral drafting has been the norm for some years in many jurisdictions which use the English language to draft legislation. For United Kingdom statutes it is an innovation. The need to implement at short notice a ministerial decision to adopt gender-neutral drafting has occasioned consideration of a variety of techniques. One of the most welcome casualties of the technique of omission with particular reference to gender-neutral drafting would be phrases of the kind 'if he thinks fit'. The imposition of a requirement of gender-neutrality and the consequent reconsideration of drafting techniques have shown many of us, who thought we were already drafting in as plain and simple English as possible, that we were still including a number of superfluities.
