Are Gender-Neutral Pronouns Really Neutral? Testing a Male Bias in the Grammatical Genderless Languages Turkish and Finnish

The use of gender-inclusive pronouns can serve two primary functions: reducing the emphasis on gender in language (a de-gendering strategy) or explicitly recognizing nonbinary individuals in language (a multi-gendering strategy).

“The use of these pronouns can serve two primary functions: reducing the emphasis on gender in language, for instance, when gender is irrelevant (a de-gendering strategy), or explicitly recognizing nonbinary individuals in language (a multi-gendering strategy) (Morgenroth & Ryan, 2021; Renström et al., 2022).”

Men report more negative attitudes toward gender-inclusive pronouns, are less likely to use them, and react more negatively when encountering such pronouns in a sentence.

“men report more negative attitudes, are less likely to use them, and react more negatively when encountering such pronouns in a sentence (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2015, 2021; Renström et al., 2022)”

Research on the Swedish gender-inclusive pronoun hen has shown that men express greater resistance compared to other groups.

“research on the Swedish gender-inclusive pronoun hen has shown that men express greater resistance compared to other groups (Renström et al., 2022)”

Previous research found that men report more negative attitudes and less use of hen compared to women.

“First, we test the part of the hypothesis found in previous research that men report more negative attitudes, and less use of hen compared to women (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2015, 2021; Renström et al., 2022).”