Pronouns | University of Bedfordshire

This LGBT History month we are encouraging everyone around the University to display their pronouns in their email signatures and to make an effort to talk about pronouns in their meetings.

Our ‘Be Proud of your Pronouns’ campaign highlights the ways we can make Bedfordshire a more welcoming place to our Transgender and Non-binary colleagues and students.

How you can make a more inclusive environment for Transgender and Non-binary colleagues?

The easiest way to create a more gender inclusive environment is to simply display your pronouns in an accessible way.

This can include:

Adding your pronouns to your email signature – adding your pronouns next to or beneath your name in your email signature lets everyone you email know how to correctly refer to you and encourages others to feel safe to go public with their own pronouns especially if they use pronouns that line up with their gender identity or if they use they/them.
Introducing your pronouns at the start of meetings – During meetings when introducing yourself include your pronouns ‘Hi I’m ….. and my pronouns are….’. This makes it clear how people should refer to you in conversation and helps to ensure that others with differing pronouns feel comfortable to share their own.

Pronouns are words that you use in place of a noun, like someone’s name.

Instead of always having to use people’s names, we often use pronouns in their place.“Nadia is over there. Let’s go say hi to Nadia her!”

Gendered pronouns associate a gender with the person you’re referring to, whilst gender-neutral pronouns do not.

Gendered pronouns	Gender-neutral pronouns
"He was so excited with his feedback" "When it was her turn she shouted yes"	"I think they found their calling in life!"

You can’t tell someone’s gender, or their pronouns, from the way they look.

It’s important that we learn not to assume gender and gendered pronouns.

“I use he/him pronouns”

“I use she/her pronouns”

“I use they/them pronouns”

It’s OK to ask what pronouns someone uses.

“Hi Morgan! What pronouns would you like me to use for you?’

If you’re not able to ask, you can use ‘they/them’ pronouns as a gender-neutral default.

Gender can be very important to someone’s sense of self.
Using the incorrect gender for someone can make them feel upset, misunderstood, and/or dysphoric.
Dysphoria is the sense of unease people may feel at their gender being perceived wrongly.
If you make a mistake with someone’s pronouns, you should briefly correct yourself and move on.