Gender pronouns: our language is evolving and so too must our workplace
Hello, my name is Sameera. I identify as a transgender non-binary person and my pronouns are she or they.
I’m an anaesthesiologist by background, having originally trained in India. Seven years ago, I moved into intensive care medicine and I currently work as a senior clinical fellow in critical care at Newham Hospital, where I am thriving.
My journey of gender
I understand there are many places in the world where discrimination still exists so I feel very glad to be here with you all to share my views and opinions for Pride 2021.
Over many years, I have worked hard to balance the journey of my gender at work with my professional life as a medical teacher and practitioner. I was fortunate that I had opportunities in my previous role to bring crucial changes at my workplace and advocate the same to others in India.
The difference between biology and identity
A transgender person is an individual who self-defines their gender as one other than what they were assigned at birth.
We all get our gender assigned at birth according to attributes such as chromosomes, hormones, and external and internal anatomy. However, this assignment sometimes conflicts with people’s gender identity - their internal sense of their own gender and what feels right for them. This might be male, female, non-binary (outside of male or female), genderless, or some other gender identity.
Affirming the principal of equality
A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or a noun phrase (I, you, them). Typical binary gender pronouns are he, him, his or she, her. A non-binary person would have non-binary pronouns like they, them, their, ze, zie, hir, hirs or may like to be addressed by just their name.
Our pronouns tend to be assumed to be those associated with the gender we express biologically. But I believe they should be based on our gender identity – not the gender we express biologically. We should not presume a person’s pronouns based on voice, appearance, and characteristics. Many have reacted nervously to this, sometimes finding it difficult to grasp. This is understandable as any change in large-scale thinking is often with met a certain degree of discomfort. My advice to you is to try to loosen your mental inertia - let go of what you have been programmed to think and understand and connect with real life. And speak to people about this topic to learn more about it.
Using people’s correct pronouns in the workplace or otherwise is the most basic way of showing respect to their gender identity. Addressing someone using their preferred pronoun is not only a way of showing consideration for that person, but also acknowledging the existence of other genders and affirming principle of equality.
We’re all learning
I’m going to share an incident where colleagues listened and learned when I spoke to them about my own pronouns:
I was called to give my opinion on the possible re-organisation of our facility into an acute Covid-19 care service. After having a thorough discussion about the necessary structural reforms my colleague called the unit’s director to inform how valuable my inputs are. That was a feel-good moment for me to know that I was appreciated during that conversation. Unfortunately, they addressed me as ‘he’.
After the phone call was done, I felt restless to correct the mistake so that it didn’t continue. I spoke to my colleague and explained my correct pronoun to him. He was deeply apologetic for presuming my gender and pronoun. This conversation was overheard by another colleague. A few weeks later, I was managing an emergency along with the same colleague who overheard our conversations about gender. They went out of their way to address me with the correct pronouns and make sure new colleagues replicated this and understood the importance of not presuming binary pronouns.
I felt deeply connected to my colleagues and respected by them following this experience. It’s also an excellent step in our hospital and trust’s journey towards becoming a more inclusive workplace.
Our language is evolving and so too must our workplace
Addressing someone by their preferred pronoun is something we should all practice to annihilate the prejudices of gender. A big part of the way humans connect with each other is through language so it’s important we get it right. We are not perfect. But I do believe one day we can eradicate some of those prejudices and it’s within our powers to do it.
Over the years the NHS has been attempting to remove these prejudices in the workplace with much success. Our language is evolving and so too must our workplace. Some of the way we could support this is by including our pronouns on things like our NHS lanyards or name badges. And I hope to see gender inclusivity by included within the medical curricula of modern medicine moving forwards.
Barts Health is recognised as an inclusive recruiter, but there’s always more that we can do to become truly inclusive. This Pride I’d like to humbly request you all to go through ten important tips which will help you identify, support and promote gender equal language in the workplace. You can read them here.
Read more: