LinkedIn pronoun display has gone

[mcduffy]

It used to really irritate me, at least half of my network having their she/her and he/him next to their display name, but it's gone. I wondered if it was just me and googled it and it seems to have been removed as a feature

viralspy.io/blog/how-to-add-pronouns-to-linkedin-2023-update/

Good. Gender politics have no place in the workplace. In my previous job we all received an e-mail from an employee at a consultancy business we had used once, stating they were now non-binary and would be using they/them pronouns. Most of us had never had any contact with this person so didn't understand why they felt the need to make us all aware. Nobody could care less and nobody used them going forward because who knows what would happen if you, God forbid, used the pronouns that matched their biological sex.

I should add I'm using 'they' so as not to be outing, not because I'm pandering to their behaviour.

Apparently they removed it in 2023! I hadn't even noticed that. I'm honestly intrigued as to why.

My network contacts who used this feature definitely fell into the "why not, what harm can it do" category rather than having any passionate feeling about declaring their "gender". LinkedIn made it easy, just click a button, so they did.

I admit it was a useful feature for me when I was approached by potential new contacts, to flag up whether the person looked like they might be hard work or not.

They still have "Gender identity" with 'Woman' 'Man' 'Another gender identity' and 'Other" as the options.

I am pleased the pronouns have disappeared.

Ah I'm actually the same as @HothouseFlower , I used it with new people to flag up who was using it and who wasn't and therefore who to avoid. I also noted with great satisfaction that the majority of my connections I had (via old jobs and my current job) weren't doing it and the ones that were (especially the ones in my current job) I already knew were absolute numpties. It kind of confirmed to me that the ones who added them were those type of people, schmoozers who floated about and didn't actually do much work. Well, that was the pattern that emerged from my list. It wasn't a surprise to me to see who had added them.

Where's that @MyrtleStrumpet ? The interface is so cluttered with unnecessary stuff, I've probably missed it.

Settings > Account Preferences > Personal demographic information.

That's on the app. I haven't checked the browser version.

They definitely still had it displayed a few weeks ago, I'm a frequent user. I saw 2023 and thought it odd! Incorrect maybe

I agree. I'm sure I saw it in the last couple of months. I'm on it every day.

Thanks Myrtle, I found it in the same location on the browser version.

Interesting that it says "Your demographic data will not be shown on your profile".

There's still a dropdown for pronouns in the "Edit intro" box though, strange.

Glad to hear they're gone! The very earnest article you quoted has the following text:

"Prior to the removal of this feature, the user could add it by editing his profile."

For all the virtue-signalling, the author doesn't seem to have quite got the hang of pronouns.

I am a woman, born female and identify as female. But I work in a heavily male dominated industry and have an ambiguous name even in its full form (so not even like I could put "Alexandra" but I otherwise go by Alex).
So pronouns on LinkedIn are needed for me. The volume of emails I get addressed to me as a Mr!! I have my profile picture where I am clearly female but the bloody [men of the] industry just assume that there is no possible way a woman could be doing the job. (Yes I'm mostly angry at them about it!)
But, I suppose what I'm saying is, I feel that pronouns do help people in addition to those who want to change their gender.
Pronoun use isn't just people "being hard work"!

Perhaps they removed the ability to add pronouns to a new profile in 2023, but any pre-existing profiles were unaffected; and the removal of all these pre-existing pronoun fields has now been undertaken?

So a decision was made in 2023. And a second decision has been made a month or so ago. Linkedin have not publicised either.

The reason for their decisions could be anything from an injection of sanity, to being uber-woke and fretting that they were breaching Yogyakarta principle 6. Although if they were being that woke, they'd be signalling it very loudly, so I'm leaning towards sanity being involved.

For those that have not come across the 'purity' that is the Yogyakarta Principles - enjoy. Six is about the right to privacy - it could have been pointed out that by demanding pronouns, they could be 'outing' someone's gender identity that they personally don't want to make public.

"The Right to Privacy. Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, is entitled to the enjoyment of privacy without arbitrary or unlawful interference, including with regard to their family, home or correspondence as well as to protection from unlawful attacks on their honour and reputation."

The Yogyakarta Principles are not law anywhere, but are much beloved in the Diversity Inclusion & Equity industry.

I saw that too @ThisBluntPlumDreamer but I assume it's a language issue, some of my clients who are not native English speakers do this.

Also to add - I just went and checked mine and my pronouns still appear... they've been ón there for years (for above mentioned reason). Are you sure they've "gone"?

I recruit in an international environment and I do end up having to google quite a lot in order to guess what pronouns to use for an unfamiliar Serbian/Ghanaian/Indonesian name, (I'm going via recruiters so can't just use "you") so the pronoun feature can be helpful then.

You could just add "Ms".
Or correct anyone who calls you Mr.

You could Google a name to find out if it's a female or male name. Or ask the person and pass it on to your team...

Or use "they" for anyone whose sex you don't know.

Why does it even matter what sex you are most of the time, for work?

Required or requested pronouns don't tell anyone what sex you are anyway, they just show that you go along with GII and/or that you are demanding or requesting that other people perceive you as you want.

Because I don't want to be referred to as Mr Smith. I'm not a Mr - and I don't want to be assumed to be male. I agree it makes no difference to my role whether I am male, female or Apache helicopter. But I really dislike the automatic assumption being that I must be male because the rest of the industry is. Female representation in STEM fields is important and it needs to be visible.

I also don't want to add a title into my name on LinkedIn - I don't see anyone else doing that? Without pronouns on my profile or email footer, I'd also be correcting people every day which gets pretty bloody boring very quickly.

Putting pronouns or Ms would not change the general assumption that everyone is male in your industry.

Putting pronouns in your bio doesn't tell anyone you're female.

I work in a culture which has always been pronoun heavy and gender woo affirmative, but on a recent zoom training day, only one person, out of a group of 29, had pronouns on her bio. (and it was completely unnecessary because we could see that she was indeed a woman)

Putting pronouns in your bio doesn't tell anyone you're female.

Quite. It just means you identify as female.

Any Tom, Dick or Harry can do that.

That's a shame. They were very useful.

They can still be added if people find them useful.

I can see why @imjusthereforAIBU finds them useful in her particular situation.

I am more interested in why LinkedIn made a big fanfare about introducing them a few years ago but now seem to be phasing them out. They have all disappeared from my connections.

Presumably someone who was waving them around discovered they were the reason they didn't get an interview ...

"waving them around" 😂