Pronouns
Use of gender-neutral pronouns is increasingly common. A 2018 survey found that a majority of Americans have heard about gender-neutral pronouns and that nearly one-in-five knows someone who uses them. Merriam-Webster even named they its Word of the Year for 2019. Sometimes people use gender-neutral pronouns to affirm the identities of people who identify as nonbinary (i.e., neither man nor woman). In these instances, gender-neutral pronouns can be important for validating peoples identities and experience of existing outside the gender binary.
Some people recommend using gender-neutral pronouns for everyone in certain circumstances, such as when an individual person’s gender identity is not known. There have even been calls to do away with gender-specific pronouns altogether, replacing them with gender-neutral pronouns for everyone. While using gender-neutral pronouns for everyone reduces instances of misgendering, it also reduces opportunities to acknowledge gender identity— preempting a potentially meaningful experience of social affirmation.
Further Reading:
-
Gender Pronouns – University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee LGBTQ+ Resource Center
-
Singular “They” – American Psychological Association (APA)
- “In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He?” by Julie Foertsch and Morton Ann Gernsbacher
-
“Why We Should All Use They/Them Pronouns” – Scientific American
-
“Actually, We Should Not All Use They/Them Pronouns” – Scientific American
-
“We Should All Use They/Them Pronouns… Eventually” – Scientific American
Restrooms
Sex-segregated restrooms have been commonplace in the United States since women entered the public sphere in large numbers. However, these spaces are not inclusive or welcoming for folks who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming. They also pose challenges for families with young children or who are caring for adults with special needs. In response to these limitations, many have called for more gender-neutral restrooms, which would be available to everyone regardless of biological sex or gender identity. Most often, people call for additional gender-neutral restrooms as an additional option, not for the elimination of sex-segregated bathrooms altogether. Nonetheless, the call for gender-neutral restrooms has encountered backlash from people who argue—without compelling evidence—that these spaces will increase women’s risk of sexual assault.
Further Reading:
- “What is a Gender-Neutral Bathroom?” – PinkNews
- “5 Reasons All Bathrooms should be Gender Neutral” – Bustle
- “Gender-Neutral Bathrooms: Pointless, Wasteful, and Sexist” – National Review
- Queering Bathrooms: Gender Sexuality, and the Hygenic Imagination by Shelia Cavanagh
- “Stalled: Gender-Neutral Public Bathrooms” by Joel Sanders and Susan Stryker
School Uniforms
Gender neutrality has made its way into schools, as many schools are now starting to adopt gender-neutral school uniform policies. While some schools are still holding on to their traditional school uniforms, others are looking into alternatives to their dress codes. Today, many school uniform policies allow girls to choose to wear pants or skirts. In other schools, gender-neutral uniforms mean pants for everyone (we are yet to see a gender-neutral uniform that requires skirts for everyone). With the growing number of young people identifying as nonbinary or gender-nonconforming, schools are starting to loosen their rigid, gendered school uniform policies by offering different options for students to choose from. Some folks support this change because they feel students should have the option to dress however they like, while others feel that gender-neutral policies can confuse students and undermine existing gender differences.
These policies can take on one of two forms:
-
All students regardless of gender identity can wear pants with their school uniform, but only girls are allowed to wear skirts.
-
All students regardless of gender identity can wear either the pants option or the skirt option depending on their own personal preference.
Further Reading:
-
“More than 100 Schools Introduce Gender-Neutral School Uniforms” – The Daily Mail
-
“Know Your Rights: School Dress Codes and Uniforms” – ACLU of Northern California
-
“Residents Criticize School District New Gender-Neutral Dress Code” – Yahoo
Parenting
Some parents are raising their kids in a gender-neutral way. In so doing, they hope to expand their child’s freedom of expression and limit the sway of rigid gender roles. Some believe this way of parenting allows children to fully explore their gender, while others worry that this parenting style will confuse or disadvantage their children .
Gender-neutral parenting can take one of two forms:
-
A “non-sexist” approach where parents provide a space for their child free from sex stereotypes. For example, giving a child access to any and all toys instead of giving trucks to a boy and dolls to a girl. This style of parenting has roots in 1970s feminism and is exemplified in the popular children’s entertainment project “Free to Be You and Me.”
-
A more radical approach involves concealing a child’s assigned sex at birth from other people. This prevents other people from inadvertently projecting gender stereotypes onto the child.
Some parents practice gender-neutral parenting for philosophical reasons. Others adopt gender-neutral parenting in response to gender nonconforming children who bristle at more gendered parenting styles.
Further Reading:
-
“Gender Neutral Parenting — Has it Gone Too Far?” – The Telegraph
-
“How to Raise a Gender-Neutral Baby” – Parents.com
-
“10 Science-Baked Tips for Bringing Up Your Child Gender Neutral” – Forbes
- “William Wants A Doll. Can He Have One? Feminists, Child Care Advisors, and Gender-Neutral Child Rearing” by Karin A. Martin
Sports
The topic of gender neutrality has come up in the context of sports at all levels, ranging from youth sports all the way to the Olympic level. Many trans, nonbinary, intersex, and gender nonconforming folks feel left out of the strict sex segregation that occurs in sports, and they argue that sex segregation should be removed entirely from sports favoring a gender-neutral approach. Many worry that removing sex segregation from sports will unfairly disadvantage women and girls, citing clear biological differences between men and women, especially in adults.
There are some folks who challenge sex segregation in sports, one being South African Olympic athlete Caster Semenya. Semenya has been the subject of controversy due to her being born intersex, and because of her condition, she produces more testosterone than the average woman. This has led many to believe that Semenya has an unfair advantage and should no longer be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Others believe that Semenya demonstrates how sex is an irrelevant category to segregate sports teams and that teams should be segregated based on other factors such as age, weight, or even hormone levels.
Further Reading:
-
“Understanding the Controversy Over Caster Semenya” – The New York Times.
Identification Cards
Recently, there has been a move to make various identification cards gender neutral. With the growing number of individuals who do not identify as male or female, various government institutions have changed their policies to accommodate folks who prefer a gender-neutral identification card. Some folks argue that these new developments are positive because they are more inclusive of folks across the gender spectrum, while others worry this will create unnecessary confusion and uncertainty, especially in a medical or legal context.
These new policies can take on one of two forms:
-
Instead of having only M or F as gender markers, there are now identification cards that have a third gender marker option called X to designate a gender-neutral identity. Some countries have issued passports with the X gender marker. Several U.S. states have offered X as an option for their state-issued driver’s licenses.
-
Some institutions have adopted to remove the gender marker entirely from their identification cards. For example, Medicare recently removed the sex marker from their identification cards.
Further Reading:
-
“Gender-Neutral Designations” – Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles
-
“Gender Markers Dropped from 57 Million Medicare Cards” – National Center for Transgender Equality
-
“States are Starting to Recognize a Third Gender: Non-Binary” – USA Today
Parental Leave
Gender neutral concept
Some folks have begun advocating for gender-neutral parental paid leave policies to be implemented in the workplace. They argue that all parents should have the opportunity to bond with a newborn child, regardless of the parent’s gender identity. However, others worry that these types of policies ignore the disproportionate amount of labor women endure after having a child, both physically and emotionally. Some have tried to maintain parental leave polices as gender neutral, while acknowledging biological differences, by designing policies that give all paid leave time but give additional leave to the parent who gave birth to compensate for the physical and emotional toll childbirth does to one’s body.
Further Reading:
-
“Is Your Parental Leave Policy Really Gender Neutral?” – Labor Sphere
-
“Equal but Inequitable: Who Benefits from Gender-Neutral Tenure Clock Stopping Policies?” – IZA
-
“A Winning Parental Leave Policy Can Be Surprisingly Simple” – Harvard Business Review
- “Is It Time to Stop Stopping the Clock?” – The Chronicle of Higher Education.