Leading global healthcare communications agency, Havas Lynx, has launched a brand new typeface that challenges gender inequality in written culture. The initiative came from a group of staff who wanted to make a change for the better.

When creating content, people often used gendered terms without realising their impact. Sans Gender is a free, innovative tool that intervenes to correct this bias. The opensource code embedded within Sans Gender automatically detects gendered terms as they are typed and swaps them for a more inclusive alternative. You could say it’s the first ever typeface to stand up to the patriarchy.

• Policeman becomes police officer
• Mankind becomes humankind
• Linesman becomes linesperson
• Mother nature becomes nature

On a global scale, the fight for gender equality is going backwards. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned that “Gender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away.”

As a communications agency, Havas Lynx wanted to create a cross-industry solution that can help address the imbalance.

Talking about Sans Gender, Chris Wellard at Havas Lynx, said: “We are influenced by the world around us, the media we consume, the people we speak to and the words we read. It’s important that we address our blind spots to ensure that the world can be as unbiased as possible and opportunities are presented to everyone no matter their gender, sexuality, race or religion.

Sans Gender is an easily implemented tool that does all of the hard work, gently nudging you towards considering your unconscious gender bias while you’re typing, so you can remain fully focussed on writing.”

The typeface is completely free and available for anyone to download via the Sans Gender website. Even more important is the open source code, which has been made available for free for any brand, type studio or designer to embed in their own typefaces. It ensures that whatever typeface you use, Sans Gender will be there to remove unconscious gender bias.

Step-by-step instructions are available as part of the download to ensure that users can implement the code in their own typeface.

Havas Lynx wants to encourage as many people as possible to join the fight for gender equality in written word. Sans Gender is a simple solution that helps making a change easy.

Find out more about Sans Gender: sansgender.com