What do I do about this job requirement?

[ForgotMyKey]

I work with university students, and have just started a new job. As part of student appraisal, I have to go through a form with them. The two pieces of personal student information which go on that form (have sections to be filled in) are name and preferred pronouns. This means I have to ask students their preferred pronouns. This feels uncomfortable to me, because (as we all know here) the wider connotations of this in the culture can be problematic.
However, the forms (used for ongoing appraisal of progress) do form the basis of third-person discussions about students, so actually, we will be using he/she etc in the students' absence, and there is nothing on the form to indicate their sex, the information is relevant. How you would approach this?

Requiring people to potentially out themselves as trans by insisting on them stating their pronouns (especially when they maybe struggling with this themselves) go's against the yukitar (sp) principles.
There are a whole bunch of reasons that I am personally against preferred pronouns (not including the 1 above) however the 1 I've listed is most likely to get some movement on this issue without outing you as GC

Yogyakarta. Personally I wouldn't refer to it though - that reinforeces the idea it has some legitimacy.

I'd question in more general terms whether it is appropriate, given the potential to upset people for multiple reasons (including but not limited to outing people who are in the process of questioning their gender).

Yogyakarta principles :). I'd never heard of this so while a challenge to find, thanks for this!

I love the paradox behind this... you need info for inclusively, but technically ANY info could be used for discrimination...

• I’m uncomfortable asking students to potentially out themselves, or for those who can’t be ‘out’ I am potentially forcing them to identify with the incorrect gender, which may be traumatising to them
• I’m uncomfortable putting students with a legally protected right to not believe in gender, in a difficult position.
• I will not be asking students for any other personal details, or beliefs, including their sex, their religion etc. And so I do not understand why this is necessary.
• i will refer to all students by name or as ‘they’ so as not to misgender.

I'd also ask why pronouns are the single piece of information related to a protected characteristic. Surely they should ask all or neither?

And ask about GDPR implications. What is their reason for holding and processing that specific bit of personal - and potentially sensitive - information? Is it justified under GDPR rules?

f) Ensure the right of all persons ordinarily to choose when, to whom and how to disclose information pertaining to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and protect all persons from arbitrary or unwanted disclosure, or threat of disclosure of such information by others.

From Principle 6 of the Yogyakarta Principles.

I suspect most of your students won't be fazed by being asked if they have a preferred pronoun.
If you don't want to use that expression you could simply ask how they like to be addressed or referred to, which is a perfectly common question - especially in an education setting.

If the students will be subsequently appraised anonymously by a third party, shouldn't that anonymisation (is that a word?) also extend to their sex? Haven't there been studies demonstrating that knowing someone is female is usually to their detriment? Apologies, if I've misunderstood.

Brilliant - thank you all!

You are spot on - the question is potentially intrusive and distressing for people from all different perspectives. I shall address it... (might leave it a week or two, so as to not be TOO unpopular before my first paycheck even arrives).

Thanks again.

Have you completed any sort of GDPR on this? Holding personal data which pronouns certainly are can only be done with the permission of the student. I can't see any of the usual exemptions unis have applies here, so you'd have to get their permission to ask and keep.

Can you ask them to fill in the form, which will have to have a gdpr notice, or suggest to your colleagues that you don't ask as it opens a can of gdpr and equality worms with no benefit to the student.

There have indeed been a lot of studies on that sort of discrimination.

Is that why the form doesn't currently list any other personal info (such as age or sex)?

If so, adding pronouns completely undermines that measure.

I think I would ask the student 'do you want me to record any preferred pronouns'. Respects their choice but doesn't impose. Then at a later date bring up any issues that it brings up for you or the students if it does.

What did they do before the fad of “asking for preferred pronouns”? How did they ascribe pronouns to an individual if their sex wasn’t recorded? Whatever they did then, why can’t they just do that now?

I think asking why it's recorded is a good idea, is it just for courtesy? because GDPR does require all personal information collected to have a purpose. How will this data be used?

I might be confused but if the form does not request sex information, how will providing a preferred pronoun potentially out the person as trans? You can't know if the pronoun aligns with their sex and 'they' might be used to avoid having to reveal sex for discrimination reasons as other posters have mentioned.

I agree, but first ask your higher-ups why it is being recorded, so you can tell them the purpose.

Any piece of data should be held for a specific purpose and with guidelines about its storage and destruction etc.

All excellent points about GDPR, etc - thank you all. This is so helpful.

I suppose if they have a man's name but then tick 'she/her' or vice versa.

I would ask what's being done about other protected characteristics, as a pp has suggested – are pronouns the single piece of EA-related information being asked? If so, how come?

And

Actually, as an educator myself and someone who is GCAF, I cannot really see any issue with this as things currently stand.

If you are talking about someone you will need to use pronouns and pronouns will denote their gender identity. No other protected characteristic manifests itself this way.

You are dealing with university students who will be 18 or over so adults, and able to chose their own gender identity without parental consent. It is perfectly legal for them to do so.

Anyone who is GC will have a response to the pronoun question in their back pocket - mine is 'I trust your judgement. No one has got it wrong yet.'

In my ideal world, asking pronouns would never have been a contentious issue because it would never have been accompanied by such an aggressive push to colonise women's rights and spaces. It would have been as benign as saying "God bless" to someone instead of goodbye, or no more offensive than when someone exclaims "jesus christ!" in surprise........

If you actually need to know the student's sex, ask their sex.
If you don't - just as well not to know it then you can't show unconscious bias.

If you get their pronouns wrong when talking about them in their absence, they're not there to care. Or if a tutor is there who has met them, they can let you know.

I'm quite suspicious of this big drive to know what sex everyone is (or what sex they think they are). Academia is already prone to sex bias.

The number of women getting first-class degrees at Cambridge was very small, and there were lots of grandiose theories about how women just didn't have brilliant minds, just competent ones. Then they started anonymising exam papers so that you couldn't tell if the writer was male or female. Suddenly women started getting lots of firsts…

Also, your sex is not sensitive or private information, but your 'gender identity' is, so it comes under a different category for GDPR - with much more stringent conditions. So you might want to raise an alarm over this.

But also seconding the poster who asked why anyone needs to care what pronouns are used in their absence?

Maybe what the form should have is name (factual full name) and 'how do you like to be referred to' - which could be a diminutive or middle name if that's what they use/and or pronouns if they're bothered. That might also be useful for some overseas students whose family name is written before given name or who've chosen a 'western' name.

how will providing a preferred pronoun potentially out the person as trans?

Assuming the OP is dealing with the students face to face, and is capable of determining which sex the person is (usually obvious), then opposite-sex pronouns would be outing.

For example, if one of the students had adopted a trans identity primarily online, with no physical changes and little adjustment in dress or appearance.

I love the advice you got on this thread. Please let us know how you get on OP.