Many of us are reflecting on how far we’ve come to achieve gender equality. We demand and track gender pay equity. We prosecute misogynists. We call for female representation on boards and executive teams. Today, many cisgender women may see “she or he” written in an employee handbook and recognize the progress toward inclusivity, which that verbiage represents—perhaps, even celebrate it.
But there are also many who experience the same milestones and progress in a different way.
We still need to address a question that requires both attention and action at this moment: How to create an environment of equity and inclusivity for all genders of our society. Or to put a finer, organizationally relevant, point on it: How to create workplace cultures where transgender and gender-nonconforming colleagues feel welcome and safe, so that they can do their best work and have an equal opportunity to unleash their potential.
This isn’t just about addressing the experience of current members of the workforce. The laws recently passed in Florida and Texas, for example, are creating environments of fear for nonbinary students—while companies stay silent. Those students are the workforce of the future, and we must do better for them.
Forward-thinking-people leaders have an outsize role to play in dismantling the passive propagation of systemic bias. It’s imperative for each of us to instead actively introduce and encourage systemic antibias. We have a long way to go before we can create the kind of truly inclusive cultures all employees deserve and we have many obstacles to overcome, but there are steps we can take today to make a tangible difference.
Here’s how.
Normalize pronoun-sharing throughout your organization
Pronouns—the verbal indicator of our gender—are a deep-seated aspect of our identity, as important as our names. And yet, while we offer our names so readily at the start of all communication, we tend to include or learn pronouns only in context. Offering our pronouns as immediately and unthinkingly as we offer our names is the first logical step toward true gender inclusivity.
It’s important to note that normalizing pronoun-sharing doesn’t mean simply “allowing” people to list their pronouns in, for example, their Zoom name display or email signature. It is indeed important for nonbinary, transgender, and gender-nonconforming employees to have opportunities to remind their colleagues of their pronouns. But the opportunity to feel safety and belonging only truly presents itself when pronoun-sharing is commonplace rather than ad hoc.
An important caveat here: It’s also important to take into account that not everyone knows their identity yet, and that some people won’t feel comfortable sharing. Those who are comfortable—especially leaders—can and should model this behavior, but never require it, as it puts team members who may be less comfortable on the spot when they’re not ready to openly share.
When everyone who is comfortable makes the small effort to introduce themselves with name and pronoun, every time—in addition to displaying their pronouns visibly—we take the onus off of underrepresented individuals so that they can create their own safe spaces.
Start with systems
In the workplace of yore, we got to know our coworkers the old-fashioned way: small talk at the coffee machine, office happy hours, or crossing paths on a common commute. We memorized names through repetition (or by sneaking peeks at our colleagues’ badges when they weren’t looking). While there’s much to miss about the old normal, our current, more digital reality presents a huge opportunity when it comes to gender equity. Because while the way we interact now may not include the daily mundanity of office life, it does include a constant visual reminder of everyone’s identity—so let’s make sure that includes pronouns.
Zoom and email signatures are a great place to start, but we shouldn’t leave the decision and implementation up to the individual—we need to systematize it. For example, Lattice recently released a feature that automatically puts pronouns at the top of your profile. With pronouns as a default setting, employees at every company that uses the Lattice platform will have the opportunity to participate in this movement.
Your onboarding process is a great way to live this norm. On day one for every new hire, have them add pronouns to relevant systems and communication channels. Train your managers to ensure adherence to this company policy (and understand why the policy exists).
Remember that culture comes from the top
It’s up to business leaders to set the example in order to actually change behavior company-wide. Whenever and wherever you might state your name, share your pronouns. Every time. It’s as easy as, “Hi, my name is Julia, and my pronouns are she/her.” These six extra words can promote the safety and well-being of all employees.
Make pronoun-sharing a part of manager training so that it’s normalized across teams to share pronouns both internally (e.g. all-hands meetings) and externally (such as in meetings with clients, agencies, board members, etc.). Work with your communications team to ensure pronouns are included in assets like style guides and email templates.
The past couple of years have undoubtedly been tumultuous, but from that tumult has also come opportunity. We have seen organizations embrace new philosophies and new practices, from hybrid work to mental health benefits. Amid these reactive changes, why not also seed a proactive one: pronoun-sharing is something we can all do today to make the world more inclusive, equitable, and safe for all people.
As leaders in the workforce, we have the opportunity to lean into systemic, in addition to individual, efforts to un-condition ourselves from traditional approaches to gender identity. The more we normalize proactive pronoun identification and the more visible we make that norm, the more we will all benefit in our journey to becoming better humans.
Julia Markish is the director of Lattice Advisory Services.
