Suddenly pronouns are popping up everywhere. With people adding she/her/hers to their email signatures. It started with academia and non-profits and has spread to the corporate world and my LinkedIn. (Sherman, 2020)
Proponents of the trend say it's intended to make the workplace more comfortable for all, including staff who are transgender or non-binary. But from what I can see it's making lots of people uncomfortable.
My parents nicknamed me P.J. when I was three days old.
I stuck with it until I was a pre-teen at which point I thought that I should give Pamela a try. It didn't last long. I started entering art contests and it occurred to me that it would be interesting if the judges did not know my gender when they evaluated my work. So back to P.J. I went.
Funny enough, no one has had any problem dealing with it all these years. When I first started working and women in business were rare, I once answered my phone and the response was an overlong pause followed by: "I was expecting a gruff male voice." We both had a good laugh about it and then we moved on.
Teaching on Zoom these past two semesters, I was sometimes surprised by the gender of students who chose not to use their cameras. Again it was no big deal.
Perhaps the true key to gender equality is when we don't need to acknowledge gender at all, but simply treat everyone well.
And there's no need to worry about what to call me.
You can call me P.J.
Sherman, N. (2020, February 19) Should your email say if you're he, she or they? bbc.com. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51331571
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