Do editors suggest writers avoid 'male' and 'female' terms?

A survey asked editors who work on instructions, API documentation and technical manuals how they would edit the following sentence: "Insert the two-pronged male end into the female receptacle in the console."

Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-NDSource: Mackiewicz and Smith, 2026, "A Usage Item in the Making: How Do Editors View the Use of 'Male' and 'Female' to Describe Connector Ends?"Get the dataDownload image