Pronouns in email

It has just occurred to me that any push, however light, for people to disclosure of any protected characteristics could be seen as an infringement of their rights. And ppl asked to put pronouns could decline saying they do not wish to disclosure to the public their protected characteristics.

Is this sound? I’m going to post on all the pronouns threads to check.

This is a workplace that traditionally encouraged (in fact, existed to promote) critical thinking. I feel increasingly excluded and judged because of the peer pressure sense that I'm among the few that has so far resisted the pronouns-in-signature wave.

All these demands on the basis that 'it literally doesn't harm you at all' (therefore you must capitulate to our will, because we say so). And then there's this:

You want to try working in a university. It's every bloody day.

Tell me about it. It's now even appearing under people's names in Zoom meetings. People who, I have to say, I thought had more critical faculty of thought.

It does do harm. I've been sexually harassed and assaulted in their workplace - a fact which is on record - because I'm female. I've negotiated countless setbacks and forms of discrimination - because I'm female. In universities, female lecturers consistently score lower in the module evaluation questionnaires than males. That's everyone from Professorial level to graduate teaching assistants. I've spent most of my adult life arguing against the fact that my sex has any bearing on the way in which I do my job. And 'gender' has no bearing on any of it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that mixed/'gender-neutral toileting provision is on its way into my workplace. Had this been there whilst my harasser was stalking me, he'd have been able to follow me in there. He's left now but still hangs around the campus despite having been removed by security more than once.

He could, theoretically, still do it.

I'm scared.

The only person at the place where I work (so far and as far as I know) who uses pronouns in their email address is a woman (she/her). With a small daughter. And announced it to the team. She either believes in gender identity or is doing it for the diversity points. You do wonder about some people’s ability to join the dots.

It has moved to Zoom now. Academics meeting a few days ago. Of 55+ attendants only one use them. Have a guess?

Yes he/him white, young male with unkept beard.

I know, I know I’m stereotyping the occasion. But, it felt a bit woke. Maybe with those pronouns he still felt female some of the time. Well, I was pleased No one else followed suit.

I believe uni admin teams are starting to go back to their offices in the coming weeks. Good luck to everyone!

Some good ideas on this thread

I'm glad I've retired.

just to add, we've been sent new email guidance and it has a space for preferred pronouns if desired.

However the 'champion' who requested this is not happy about it being optional (she/her)

The way our email works, the notification comes through in the bottom left hand corner and shows their name and pronoun together - so it's not just at the end of an email, it's plopping itself there at every notification and is very distracting

After today's debacle on twitter, you could use

Supershe
Superher

'The cat's mother!'

I finally decided I'd just add the first verse of a Status Quo song

I am also Dr Covoid and frequently assumed to be male. I am never offended. I imagine it might sometimes be to my advantage.

I do not wish to announce my pronouns in my email sig because I just find it irrelevant. If it's such a big deal issue for you to avoid being misgendered then put them in but why force others to do it?

Loads of times with international names I have no idea if the person I am addressing is male or female and I don't care. This is implying that it is important for me to know how someone identifies to send a work email to them and I don't see why I should perpetuate the idea that it matters what sex or gender you are at work.

The only time it was useful to me was someone on a placement was non binary and put their pronouns as 'they/ their' and that was a useful hint as to how they wished to be viewed because from their 'presentation' I would not have known (they were male. I could obviously tell that). It was helpful to them not to have to say it to everyone I guess. In that situationist useful but if your pronouns are the standard ones then it's not necessary and just making sex and gender an issue in the workplace when it should not be.

babbaloushka I think that “womxn” is now considered to be transphobic because it was originally created to be inclusive to everyone who identified as a woman (and also possibly to avoid using the -man/men suffix, maybe triggering???) but if TWAW then we should all be able to use “women” because we are all the same. If you use “womxn” to refer to TW you are saying they are not women. I think that’s the theory

I have been Dr wserrab for years. Very happy to be able to drop Ms/Miss/Mrs. Have no intention of ever revealing my pronouns as wish to be judged on my work alone. If someone presumes I'm a man, it won't offend me.

I teach French in a secondary school. This hasn’t come our way yet but if it did, I’d be tempered to write (je/tu/il/elle/on/nous/vous/ils/elles/me/te/se/nous/vous/se/me/te/le/la/nous/vous/les/me/te/lui/lui/nous/vous/leur/le mien/le tien/le sien/le nôtre/le vôtre/le leur)
I might just even chuck in ‘y’ and ‘en’ for the hell of it.
Good job I don’t teach German any more ....

I’m quite entertained by the idea that women would be floored by someone calling them “mr” “he” or “him” if they had a unisex name like Sam or Alex. As if male wasn’t always the default in times of doubt! drop down boxes always list “mr” first, I’ve had more junk emails & letters addressed to mr biscuits than I can count. We’re used to it! It’s called patriarchy

If it ever comes my way, will just blithely ignore. My sex and pronouns have nowt to do with my work, and nor should they. Funny that not many men are phased by it, when they have the least to lose. Am surprised women are so eager to offer themselves up to the potential for discrimination.

I'm confused about womxm! Is that transphobic now? I saw it on a poster about an LGBTQ stuff at university, with inclusivity for trans people! The goalposts don't stop changing...

Ahhh, fear not!!

I now have something to put in my email signature!

Superstraight!!

What are those pronouns?

Supershe
Superher
Superwoman

(emailing hr now!)

Yeah, dislike the ‘doesn’t make any difference to you’ argument.

I could do with a very neutral response because I'm sure that I'm going to be challenged on this at some point.