Quest for gender-neutral pronouns

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More information on the various solutions is given below.

Contents 1 Relevant situations 2 Options 2.1 Generic male or female 2.2 he or she 2.3 Singular they 2.4 Recasting to a different grammatical number, person or voice 2.5 Other ways of recasting sentences 2.6 It 2.7 One 2.8 Neologisms 3 External Links:

[edit] Relevant situations

There are a variety of situations in which a (possibly subconscious) decision must be made: whether to use gender-specific pronouns in a generic sense, employ singular they, recast the sentence, or some other solution. This also applies when referring to items with biological gender, such as animals and some plants. There are three common situations:

• To refer to a specific person of unknown gender.
  • I spoke to Gecko on IRC last night - ___ said that Russian was difficult.
  • That person in the red hat over there: do you think ___ is male or female?
  • Has your baby said ___ first word yet?
  • What did the doctor say when ___ saw the swelling?

• In descriptions of people who are somehow hypothetical.
  • A farmer must set ___ alarm very early.
  • If a customer wants a refund, give it to ___.
  • Could the last person to leave make sure ___ closes the door?

• To match words such as everyone and nobody.
  • Everyone in the band should break ___ guitar at the end of the set.
  • Nobody enjoys having salt on ___ cornflakes.
  • Who is good at twiddling ___ thumbs?

There are also some less common situations. The writer of a detective story might want to describe the actions of the villain without giving away his or her gender. Different authors choose different devices here: for example, Iain Banks uses the first and second person in Complicity and The Wasp Factory.

Transgendered people are something of a special case. Typically they desire to be known by the normal, gender-specific pronouns of their destination genders. So a male-to-female transexual would wish to be referred to as 'she'. However, a minority have different preferences.

Science fiction authors sometimes describe conscious things that don't have a gender: intelligent robots, asexual aliens, and similar beings. Different writers use different devices.

Some people wish to refer to all people using gender-neutral terms, unless gender is directly relevant to the discussion. Some do this because they see gender-specific pronouns as inherently sexist. This is a radical viewpoint not shared by all feminists.

[edit] Options

In 2000 the American Heritage Dictionary got the following percentages when asking its usage panel what should fill in the gap in the following sentence: "A taxpayer who fails to disclose the source of _____ income can be prosecuted under the new law."

• his or her: 46%
• his: 37%
• no pronoun: 7%
• her: 2%
• an article (typically the) : 2%
• all others: 6%

Todo: Add actual evidence for how widespread each solution is here.

Proponents of singular they believe that these figures are misleading because usage panels tend to be prescriptive rather than descriptive, and focus only on formal usage. Casting the sentence using singular they would read, "A taxpayer who fails to disclose the source of their income can be prosecuted under the new law." There is more information on singular they below.

Proponents of rewording sentences note that the panel was not given the option of, for example, putting the sentence into the plural, which some people see as the most elegant solution. There is more information on rewording sentences in this manner below.

Also described below are 'it', 'one', and various neologisms. These are all very rare and most commentators believe that they will not catch on.

[edit] Generic male or female

Usage of the male pronouns to refer to a person who could be of either sex was prescribed by manuals of style and school textbooks from the early nineteenth century until the latter third of the twentieth century:

• The customer brought his purchases to the cashier for checkout.
• In a supermarket, a consumer can buy anything he needs.
• When a customer argues, always agree with him.
• Any patient who is at risk for breast cancer should talk to his doctor about it.

However, even in the nineteenth century some grammarians felt that this usage was misguided, arguing that "he" and "him" do strongly imply masculinity, rather than unknown gender, to English speakers.[1] With the rise of the Women's Liberation movement and feminism, opposition to this usage has risen steadily. Many now feel that the usage of "he," "him," and "his" to denote a person of unknown gender is not only highly artificial and potentially confusing, but also offensive to women.

Attempts to move away from this tradition are described by supporters as gender neutral, gender free, gender inclusive or non-sexist. Opponents consider these changes to be newspeak and politically correct.

"She" and "her" are sometimes, though very rarely, used in a parallel way to refer to a person of unknown gender. More commonly, those who agree that always using "he" is offensive to women but dislike singular they and other gender-neutral pronouns sometimes alternate between "he" and "she."

Some other languages (notably those with masculine and feminine aspects to all nouns, such as French and Spanish) explicitly use the male form to refer to an unknown gender or a mixture of genders (i.e., in Spanish, a group of girls and boys would be referred to as los niños, whereas a group of girls would be las niñas).

See also:

• gender-specific pronoun

[edit] he or she

Some people proposed compound forms to emphasize the possibility of the referent having either sex: such as he or she, him or her, his or her or himself or herself. Any of these forms could be reversed, in an attempt to not imply that males had priority: she or he, her or him, her or his or herself or himself. However, this still leaves the problem of which order is used, or if multiple orders are used, which is used first, resulting in the same perceived bias problem as simply using he. Another difficulty with this usage is that it is awkward in both written and spoken English, drawing attention away from the content and putting undue emphasis on the pronoun usage. Consider: A student should do her or his homework if he or she wants to do well on his or her exam.

See also:

• gender-specific pronoun

[edit] Singular they

Singular they is widely used in informal language, and is becoming more common in formal language.

This use of singular they has existed in English since the 15th century and is commonly heard today:

• Any American can succeed in business, if they try hard enough.

Far and away, the most common solution is to replace gender-specific singular pronouns with gender-free plural pronouns like they, their and theirs.

Todo: Reconcile this with the American Heritage Dictionary poll above which indicates otherwise.

[edit] Recasting to a different grammatical number, person or voice

Frequently the problem is avoided by recasting the sentence in some way. Consider the sentence A doctor cannot heal himself. This can be rewritten in various ways:

• Doctors cannot heal themselves (plural)
• If you are a doctor, then you cannot heal yourself (second person)
• If I were a doctor, then I could not heal myself (first person)
• If one is a doctor, one cannot heal oneself
• One who is a doctor cannot heal oneself

However, this is of no use when referring to specific people whose gender is unclear. Additionally, working in the singular when applicable often adds clarity in complex paragraphs involving singular and plural subjects.

Sometimes a sentence can be reworded into the passive voice. For example, compare these sentences:

• Sam made his point well (active)
• Sam's point was well-made (passive)

The sentence in the passive voice does not imply that Sam is male, whereas the sentence in the active voice does. However, this comes at the cost of precision: the passive sentence no longer makes it clear whether Sam was speaking or someone else was presenting his argument on his behalf.

These sentences provide another example of using passing voice, carrying the same weakness:

• The doctor put on his tie
• The doctor's tie was put on

(both of which ignore the obvious answer: "the doctor put on a tie")

[edit] Other ways of recasting sentences

One approach is to simply avoid using any pronouns at all. Most people find this clumsy, especially if carried to extremes.

• Sam went to Sam's bedroom, and then Sam combed Sam's hair.
• The politician decided to go home. That politician felt that the spouse would be more receptive.
• A taxpayer should declare the source of income, or else face a heavy fine.

Another approach is to always determine the gender of the person being spoken of, before using pronouns to reference him or her. In the case of hypothetical people, they can be given an arbitrary gendered name and then references as a person of that gender.

• Suppose the customer, call him James, asks for a cola. Do I give him Pepsi or Coca-cola or ask him to clarify?
• "What's your baby's name?" -- "Jane." -- "Isn't she beautiful?"

Most sentences with gender-specific pronouns can be reworded (with some thought) to avoid the pronoun in question. The examples at the top of the page, though not completely trivial, are all amenable to the techniques described above, or more creative rewording, in many cases leading to more natural sentences:

• On IRC last night, Gecko told me that Russian was difficult.
• Do you think the person over there in the red hat is male or female?
• Has your baby started forming words yet?
• What did the doctor say on seeing the swelling?
• Farmers have to set their alarms very early.
• Give refunds to those customers who want them.
• Could the last person to leave please close the door?
• All the musicians in the band should break their guitars at the end of the set.
• Nobody enjoys having salt on cornflakes.
• Who is good at twiddling thumbs?

[edit] It

In English, pronouns such as it and its have been used to refer to babies and pets, although with the passing of the Victorian era this usage has come to be considered too impersonal, with many usage advocates arguing that it demeans a conscious being to the status of a mere thing. This use of 'it' also got bad press when various regimes used it as a rhetorical device to try and dehumanise their enemies: implying that they were little better than animals.

• The cute little baby giggled and kicked its feet.
• We're taking it to the vet for a checkup.

'It' is still used for idiomatic phrases such as Is it a girl or a boy?. Once the gender of the child has been established, it is then normal to switch to gender-specific pronouns.

Some people propose using 'it' in a wider sense in all the situations where a gender-neutral pronoun might be desired. The advantage of using an existing word is that the language doesn't have to change as much. This is currently very rare, and most commentators feel that it is unlikely to catch on.

[edit] One

It is possible (though rare) to recast sentences to use 'one' in the existing sense (see below). This is currently very rare, and most commentators feel that it is unlikely to catch on, in part because 'one' currently has a very specific meaning: according to the OED, 'one' means 'any person' or 'the speaker or writer as representing people in general'. In this usage, it is generally used to make statements with which the speaker feels his audience and/or his peers would agree: 'one can't help liking the man'. This is a comparatively limited use, though no less useful for that.

	Subject	Object	Possessive Adjective	Possessive Pronoun	Reflexive
One (classic)	He laughed	I hit him	His face bled	I am his	One shaves himself
One (modern)	One laughed	I hit one	One's face bled	I am one's	One shaves oneself

If one doesn't mind sounding a bit formal, or perhaps dated, one may resort to using 'one'. Curiously, while 'one' used to decline as 'one/his/himself' (before this grew to be considered incorrect), there is now an alternative declension of 'one/one's/oneself'. This new declension was first proposed by Robert Baker in 1770, not without opposition. Both declensions are acceptable in US English, but according to the OED, only the modern version is acceptable in UK English.

[edit] Neologisms

So many different people have suggested so many new sets of pronouns that it is simply not feasible to go through them all here. The first on record dates from around 1850, and there may have been even earlier ones that are not recorded. Most of these words are no longer used. None have become commonly used outside of narrow contexts, such as certain usenet groups. A complete list of all proposed sets, active and inactive, can be found at the Gender Neutral Pronoun FAQ, along with analysis of each set's usability.

[edit] External Links:

• Gender-Free Legal Writing, Arthur Close, QC