Man-hour vs. person-hour? Is the former now considered politically incorrect?
It’s now (often) considered politically incorrect to say chairman. We must now say chairperson or simply chair.
Does the same apply to man-hour? Should I instead say person-hour? (On say a job application.)
Context examples:
"Increased US airport security measures since 2011 have wasted an additional 3 (or whatever) billion man-years of standing in queues."
"This website's interface requires an additional unnecessary mouse-click, thereby costing users 1 million man-hours a year."
"3 man-hours have been lost due to drivers having to manoeuvre around this fallen tree branch."
"The Mythical Man-Month"
I’m not talking about time wasted per person, but rather the grand total of time across all involved persons.
Political correctness is in the ear of the beholder.
Personally, until I am deemed to be of the huperson race, I will continue to use man hour, manpower, mankind, etc.
And, to answer your question, don't use "person-hour" on a job-application. It sounds ridiculous (in my opinion). If you want to use something gender-neutral, you can measure in terms of FTE (Full Time Equivalent).
Yes
As @Ste says, this is subjective. But in my opinion, yes, you should use a gender-neutral term for tracking work time. I suggest "worker hours".
(Edit: for context, I'm a Christian who takes the Bible seriously on everything, including gender roles. I see this mainly as an issue of kindness, not advocacy for a view of gender.)
Does every term including "man" need revising? Maybe not. And yes, we can make funny-sounding neutral examples. "Personhole" is one I thought of recently, while passing by a storm drain.
But consider how you'd feel if you were a woman on a team of accountants or architects or programmers, and someone said that your last project had taken 300 "man hours". Whoops, sounds like you didn't contribute.
Douglas Hofstadter's essay did a lot to change my own feelings on the subject.
I don't take a blanket approach, but I think it's worth considering context. Nobody thinks that "mankind" means only men, so I think it's fine (though "humanity" may be better). But many people think women aren't doctors, so "man hours" to describe physicians' work may reinforce a wrong perception.
"Worker hours" sounds less awkward to me than "person hours" and actually conveys the idea better than "man hours", anyway: we're measuring hours of work, not hours of being a man. Similarly, "access hole" might be better than "manhole".
If you can be more accurate, more inclusive, and it doesn't sound awkward, why not?