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Guest Posted 23 years ago
Grammar

Service men, women; servicemen, servicewomen (Peter Jones)

I have come across, in some official guidelines where I work, the expression 'Servicemen and women'.
I think it should be either 'Service men and women' or ' Servicemen and Servicewomen'. Opinion on this would be appreciated, particularly with a reference to support it.
  

Top answer

'Servicemen and women' is ok, i'd use that to avoid repetition.

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  • 'Servicemen and women' is ok, i'd use that to avoid repetition.
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5 Answers
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'Servicemen and women' is ok, i'd use that to avoid repetition.
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I use serviceperson, just like I use chairperson; unless, I should especifically be specific about the gender, but that's really a personal taste.
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I agree that it should be expressed in parallel form; this is ethically and aesthetically proper.

Servicemen and servicewomen are both entries in the Oxford Dictionary. It honours the service of men and women in equal measure. Do not attach 'service' to men and not to women in written form.

The test is to flip the pairing: Would anyone like "servicewomen and men"? Case closed.

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I agree that for parallelism, it should be service men and women because that's more grammatical and aesthetic. In addition, the logical meaning of the phrase as it stands is "male members of the military and all women, military or civilian."

But we've lost the battle, I'm afraid. If you google the US Dept. of Defense website (and others), "servicemen and women" seems to be well accepted

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