{"id":167,"date":"2025-09-13T20:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/6-9-2-gendered-pronouns\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:19:33","slug":"6-9-2-gendered-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/6-9-2-gendered-pronouns\/","title":{"raw":"6.10.2 Gendered Pronouns","rendered":"6.10.2 Gendered Pronouns"},"content":{"raw":"Consider how you use gendered pronouns. Using he<\/em> as a generic pronoun shows a strong bias towards male individuals. Instead, you can use \u201che or she\u201d (\u201chis or her\u201d) as the pronoun for a generic noun. It is now acceptable to use the plural pronoun \u201cthey\u201d as a singular pronoun, to be inclusive and to avoid awkwardness by using too many \u201che\/she\u201d constructions. You can also eliminate singular nouns and use plural nouns and pronouns as appropriate.\n\nFor example, traditional rules of English grammar call for a singular pronoun to agree with a singular subject: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. He<\/em> or she<\/em> will call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d Contemporary usage of English allows a plural pronoun in this case to avoid gender bias: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. They<\/em> will call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d Or, in this situation, you may want to omit the pronoun: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. You can expect the call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d See a few more examples in Table 6.5.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 6.5 Modifying Sentences When Gendered Pronouns Are Not Relevant<\/caption>\n
\n

Avoid <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

\n

Try <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Every employee should file his report by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Every employee should file their report by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

All employees should file their reports by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

When filing the report, each employee should make sure he includes yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

When filing the report, each employee should make sure they include yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

When filing the report, employees should make sure they include yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nThis section is adapted from \"Eliminating Bias in Language\"<\/a> in Communication for Professionals<\/em> by Susan Oaks, licensed under CC BY-NC: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International<\/a>, except where otherwise noted.","rendered":"

Consider how you use gendered pronouns. Using he<\/em> as a generic pronoun shows a strong bias towards male individuals. Instead, you can use \u201che or she\u201d (\u201chis or her\u201d) as the pronoun for a generic noun. It is now acceptable to use the plural pronoun \u201cthey\u201d as a singular pronoun, to be inclusive and to avoid awkwardness by using too many \u201che\/she\u201d constructions. You can also eliminate singular nouns and use plural nouns and pronouns as appropriate.<\/p>\n

For example, traditional rules of English grammar call for a singular pronoun to agree with a singular subject: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. He<\/em> or she<\/em> will call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d Contemporary usage of English allows a plural pronoun in this case to avoid gender bias: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. They<\/em> will call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d Or, in this situation, you may want to omit the pronoun: \u201cSomeone will call you to further discuss the issue. You can expect the call between 9:00 and 10:00 tomorrow morning.\u201d See a few more examples in Table 6.5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 6.5 Modifying Sentences When Gendered Pronouns Are Not Relevant<\/caption>\n
\n

Avoid <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

\n

Try <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Every employee should file his report by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Every employee should file their report by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

\n<\/td>\n

\n

All employees should file their reports by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

When filing the report, each employee should make sure he includes yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

When filing the report, each employee should make sure they include yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

\n<\/td>\n

\n

When filing the report, employees should make sure they include yesterday\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This section is adapted from “Eliminating Bias in Language”<\/a> in Communication for Professionals<\/em> by Susan Oaks, licensed under CC BY-NC: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International<\/a>, except where otherwise noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-167","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":143,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/167\/revisions\/168"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/143"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/167\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}