Women in Financial Services
Taking diversity seriously: gender identity
Katie.Dix / 10 Dec 2019
Taking diversity seriously: gender identity
While the gender balance at all levels of an organisation is an important, and measurable, element of a company’s diversity policy, it is by no means the only one. Creating an inclusive environment is also significant if you want to help everyone work to their full potential.
That’s why I was pleased to see a recent Goldman Sachs blogpost titled ‘Bringing your Authentic Self to Work: Pronouns’. It sets out a new internal campaign for the company focusing on gender identity and how it is expressed through people’s personal choices of pronoun.
As well as ‘he’, ‘she’ and the singular use of ‘they’, which I suspect most people are familiar with, they highlight an alternative gender-neutral pronoun set. This is made up of ‘ze’, ‘zir’, ‘zem’, ‘zirs’, ‘zes’, ‘zirself’ and ‘zemself’. They also point out that another alternative is to simply use someone’s name, rather than any specific pronoun when referring to them.
The blogpost ends with tips for being an inclusive ally (which is an area explored in more detail in a recent post of ours from, Alessandra Wall) and a reiteration of the company’s commitment to an inclusive environment.
If you haven’t seen the post yet, and particularly if you are unfamiliar with gender-neutral pronouns, I would encourage you to read it.
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