Gender Inclusivity: He / She / They
School of Professional & Continuing Education (SPCE)
Gender equity in the workplace has been a central focus for employers over the last few decades. Although more people have come to understand the need for gender diversity, organizations have struggled to find attainable and applicable ways to centralize this campaign. Workshops and trainings may feel repetitive and draining especially when they paint a picture of hopelessness, are limited in scope, and do not provide applicable skills. Additionally, gender is often approached from a dichotomy that leaves out the experiences of a whole plethora of people. Alongside cisgender people (people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) are transgender, non-binary, gender-nonconforming and other gender-diverse individuals who experience gender in different, unique, and wonderful ways. Learning to welcome and include all of these groups into our workplaces might feel at times to place us on awkward footing, but allow us to create much stronger foundations for people to authentically exist in their work.
Integrate gender inclusive practices into your day-to-day functioning in the workplace. Even small, almost negligible changes can make a big difference in signaling to peers and potential employees that your space is an inclusive and positive one. Introduce yourself with your own pronouns, put your pronouns onto your online screen name, use the correct pronouns for your coworkers, abstain from using slurs and gendered jokes, and avoid labeling others through language based on assumption. Even if putting your pronouns on your zoom name may feel extraneous, a coworker seeing a workplace culture that acknowledges and respects gender identity may finally feel able to come out at work, a new employee may not feel like they have to test their safety as much, and prospective employees can be given these practices as an example of gender equity being integrated into their business culture. A workplace functions better the more secure, safe, and valued employees feel and gender equity is one layer of creating these positive spaces that hold so much potential.
For more information on pronouns or to utilize campus resources for conversations, try thse links:
Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression Resources
