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Pride and Pronouns: What’s All The Fuss About?
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
By Joanne Lockwood, founder and CEO of SEE Change Happen and a Diversity & Inclusion Specialist who also promotes Transgender Awareness to organisations
If a pronoun is quite simply a way to refer to someone instead of using their name, why is it so important to be getting it right at work? The LGBTQ+ community is often still facing discrimination, isolation, poor opportunities and even hate crime at work, but not using the correct pronouns has a profound effect on our inclusion in the workplace.
The run up to Pride this June is a celebration of how far the community has come but it is also a stark reminder of how far there is to go in raising awareness and one key aspect of that is identity. Many in the LGBTQ+ community may not align with typical gender stereotypes and choose to use alternative pronouns to avoid being misgendered. For example, non-binary individuals don’t identify as male or female so tend to use the gender pronouns ‘they/them/their’. Using the correct pronoun is showing you respect and accept an individual’s right to be as they authentically and truly are.
Pronouns are a way to affirm ones identity especially because on a daily basis, the LGBTQ+ community face challenges surrounding equality and acceptance. I like people to respect and use my name and pronoun as a woman. Misgendering me and not including me as a woman can make me feel like I continue to fail to be allowed to be who I am and that I am not accepted, validated, included or good enough.
Look at it from a different perspective. Imagine being called a gender that you are not if you are cisgender. No one wants that because we want to be identified as we truly are. Obviously when someone uses the wrong pronoun in genuine error and doesn’t have any bad intention, I appreciate it when they correct themselves and we can of course move on. When that mistake is repeated over and over it becomes a microaggression. Personally I often ask them to repeat themselves and to check that is what they meant but ultimately organisations also need to have a clear protocol, leaders need to lead by example and many business need training around that.
This decade will increasingly see a movement towards the importance of pronouns, both for trans and non-binary equality and to increase discussions about gender, which is something that benefits everyone. Using the correct pronouns for someone or including pronouns in your own email signature or social media profile shows you don’t make assumptions about gender, want to reduce misgendering (accidental or not), you care about how each of us identify differently, and it is an important move towards better inclusivity. At a business level this type of inclusion can represent a powerful cultural shift in organisations and an awareness that is thankfully growing – the need for and provision of a safe work culture.
How your business can embrace a culture of inclusion using the right pronouns:
A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun, often referring to people. In the context of gender, it indicates how individuals identify themselves.
Inclusivity refers to the practice of creating environments where all individuals feel welcomed, respected, and valued, regardless of their background or identity.
Misgendering occurs when someone is referred to by the wrong pronouns or gendered terms, which can be hurtful and invalidating to their identity.
Workplace culture encompasses the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how employees interact and work together within an organization.
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