science

Preferred gender pronoun

Preferred gender pronoun is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Preferred gender pronoun rather than just read about it. In short: Preferred gender pronouns (also called personal gender pronouns, often abbreviated as PGP) are the set of pronouns (in English, third-person pronouns) that an individual wants others to use to reflect that person's own gender identity. In English, when declaring one's chosen pronouns, a person will often state the subject and object pronouns (e.g., he/him, she/her, they/them), although sometimes, the possessive pron…

Key takeaways

Preferred gender pronoun belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Preferred gender pronoun to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Preferred gender pronoun from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Preferred gender pronouns (also called personal gender pronouns, often abbreviated as PGP) are the set of pronouns (in English, third-person pronouns) that an individual wants others to use to reflect that person's own gender identity. In English, when declaring one's chosen pronouns, a person will often state the subject and object pronouns (e.g., he/him, she/her, they/them), although sometimes, the possessive pronouns are also stated (e.g., she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/their/theirs). The pronouns chosen may include neopronouns such as ze and zir. The American Dialect Society declared "(my) pronouns" as its 2019 word of the year.

Rationale and use In English, when declaring one's pronouns, a person will often state the subject and object pronouns, for example he/him, she/her, or they/them; sometimes, the possessive pronouns are also stated (she/her/hers, he/him/his, or they/them/their/theirs). A person who uses multiple pronouns (either interchangeably or in different contexts) may list both subject pronouns, for example she/they or they/he. PGPs have come into use as a way of promoting equity and inclusion for transgender, non-binary and genderqueer people. Their use has been identified by social workers, educators, and medical professionals as both a practical and ethical consideration. Style guides and associations of journalists and health professionals advise use of the pronoun chosen or considered appropriate by the person in question. When dealing with clients or patients, health practitioners are advised to take note of the pronouns used by the individuals themselves, which may involve using different pronouns at different times. This is also extended to the name chosen by the person concerned. LGBTQ advocacy groups also advise using the pronouns and names chosen or considered appropriate by the person concerned. They further recommend avoiding gender confusion when referring to the background of transgender people, such as using a title or rank to avoid a gendered pronoun or name. The practice of sharing personal gender pronouns has been observed in the LGBT community at least since the early 2000s. By the 2020s, it had become a common practice in social settings and on social media. Social media websites including Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn have added dedicated pronoun fields for their users' profile pages. In July 2021, the Pew Research Center reported that 26% of Americans knew someone who preferred pronouns such as they instead of he or she, a rise from 18% in 2018. Some use neopronouns such as xe, ze, ve, tey, and hir. Some people use more than one set of pronouns, either interchangeably or depending on the situation, and may indicate their personal pronouns as he/they or they/she.

Cautions The dean of women at Pomona College, Rachel N. Levin, advised against professors asking students to reveal their PGPs during class introductions, since this could upset those whom the PGP use is supposed to support. The two examples Levin gives include one student who has to confront not passing (in other words, that their gender presentation is not clear to people around them), and another student who does not know which pronouns to request others to use. Christina M. Xiao, a Harvard University student who favored use of PGPs, opposed PGPs being mandatory, saying that making use of PGPs can force people into an uncomfortable situation where they out themselves or feel "incredibly dysphoric". Steven Taylor, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for Inclusive Employers, an organization focused on improving workplace inclusion, wrote that while adding pronouns is a way for cisgender people to make non-binary and transgender people more recognized, it should not "be mandated" as an organization might have "trans colleagues who do not feel able to share their pronouns yet". The draft guidance of NIH Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office and the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion said that disclosing personal pronouns when beginning a conversation might make others "more comfortable to disclose their own and prevent misgendering in the workplace." However, it warned that intentionally refusing to use the correct pronouns of someone is "equivalent to harassment and a violation of one's civil rights" and that pronoun disclosure should be "an individual choice and not a mandate". Analysts Louis Choporis, Gemma Martin, and Bali White, argued that using the incorrect pronouns can be "hurtful, angering, and even distracting". Additionally, Meredith Boe of Inhersight said that companies should not require pronouns in email signatures because it can "make many gender-expansive people uncomfortable".

Terminology Many LGBTQ+ style guides such as the GLAAD Media Reference Guide, recommend against referring to pronouns as "preferred", to emphasize that their correct usage is not optional, nor an individual preference. Levin says that "pronouns aren't 'preferred' but simply correct or incorrect for someone's identity."

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Preferred gender pronoun

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Preferred gender pronoun claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Preferred gender pronoun before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Preferred gender pronoun ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Preferred gender pronoun

In research: Preferred gender pronoun appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Preferred gender pronoun in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Preferred gender pronoun is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Grammatical gender, LGBTQ linguistics, Linguistic controversies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Preferred gender pronoun outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Preferred gender pronoun in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Preferred gender pronoun means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Preferred gender pronoun out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Preferred gender pronoun in simple terms?

Why does Preferred gender pronoun matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Preferred gender pronoun?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Preferred gender pronoun.