Introducing a gender-neutral pronoun in a natural gender language: the influence of time on attitudes and behavior

Abstract

The implementation of gender fair language is often associated with negative reactions and hostile attacks on people who propose a change. This was also the case in Sweden in 2012 when a third gender-neutral pronoun hen was proposed as an addition to the already existing Swedish pronouns for she (hon) and he (han). The pronoun hen can be used both generically, when gender is unknown or irrelevant, and as a transgender pronoun for people who categorize themselves outside the gender dichotomy. In this article we review the process from 2012 to 2015. No other language has so far added a third gender-neutral pronoun, existing parallel with two gendered pronouns, that actually have reached the broader population of language users. This makes the situation in Sweden unique. We present data on attitudes toward hen during the past 4 years and analyze how time is associated with the attitudes in the process of introducing hen to the Swedish language. In 2012 the majority of the Swedish population was negative to the word, but already in 2014 there was a significant shift to more positive attitudes. Time was one of the strongest predictors for attitudes also when other relevant factors were controlled for. The actual use of the word also increased, although to a lesser extent than the attitudes shifted. We conclude that new words challenging the binary gender system evoke hostile and negative reactions, but also that attitudes can normalize rather quickly. We see this finding very positive and hope it could motivate language amendments and initiatives for gender-fair language, although the first responses may be negative.

Singular ‘they’ and novel pronouns: gender-neutral, nonbinary, or both?

“…New pronouns have been proposed, but none have achieved widespread use (Barron 2010). While most English speakers accept generic singular 'they' (1), ratings diverge on specific uses (2); further, those who reject (2) endorse prescriptivist linguistic views and more binary concepts of gender (Bradley et al 2017;Bradley 2018), consistent with an analysis by Bjorkman (2017) that specific use (2) is driven by changes in socio-pragmatic conventions and syntactic features.…”

“…In particular, we would like to know how and when consensus will emerge in English as to how to refer to individuals without specifying their gender. Further, this interpretive data can help us determine how the social factors we've identified (Bradley et al 2017;Bradley 2018) influence speakers progression from understanding the meanings of these pronouns to using them in their own speech.…”

Reducing a Male Bias in Language? Establishing the Efficiency of Three Different Gender-Fair Language Strategies

“…The implementation of hen was preceded by a heated and polarized debate which started in the 2010s, and many Swedish language users still dislike the word (Bäck et al 2017a, b;Gustafsson Sendén et al 2015;Lindqvist et al 2016). Nonetheless, this public debate led hen to become well-known to the Swedish-speaking population.…”

Gender Trouble in Social Psychology: How Can Butler’s Work Inform Experimental Social Psychologists’ Conceptualization of Gender?

“…However, evidence from Sweden, where the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” has become more widely used since the publication a children’s book using only “hen” instead of “han” (he) and “hon” (her) in 2012, indicates that attitudes toward its use have shifted dramatically from predominantly negative to predominantly positive in a very short amount of time (Gustafsson Sendén et al, 2015). As gender researchers, we should be at the forefront of such issues and promote and advance gender equality – and gender diversity – not only through our research but also by communicating our research in a gender-inclusive way, especially in light of Butler’s (and others’) arguments that language is a crucial mechanism in creating gender and reinforcing the gender binary.…”