Using the term “airmen” is offensive and should be avoided, Nato has said.
The organisation said the word should be replaced by “air force personnel” in its gender-inclusive language manual, which offers several recommendations to “challenge unconscious bias” and “raise awareness of how language affects our behaviours and attitudes”.
The manual suggests that “gender-inclusive language is becoming the new norm” and that there is a “set of techniques to avoid the generic masculine form”.
