• 3-minute read
• 6th July 2016

Gendered Pronouns in Academic Writing

Pronouns – words that can take the place of a noun in a sentence – can be quite controversial in academic writing. Nevertheless, we often need pronouns in our work, particularly when referring to other people.

There is, of course, the issue of using the first person in essays, which we’ve addressed elsewhere. But today we’re focusing on gendered pronouns.

So, what is a gendered pronoun? Should we use them in essays? And why are they problematic?

Gendered Pronouns

Gendered pronouns refer to a specific gender. In English, this includes the third person pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’ (male), and ‘she’ and ‘her’ (female).

This is an issue because, until quite recently, academic discourse was very male. Traditionally, therefore, ‘he’ has been used whenever referring to a non-specific individual:

When someone starts a business, he has to make several decisions.

Reasonably enough, the 51% of the population to whom ‘he’ doesn’t apply eventually got bored of this masculine approach. A non-sexist alternative is therefore required.

Gender Neutral Pronouns

It is, of course, fine to use ‘he’ and ‘she’ when referring to particular individuals of a known gender, such as a specific author:

Woolf’s prose style reflects her thematic interests.

But knowing which pronoun to use when referring to a non-specific person is tricky, since there’s no singular, third person gender neutral pronoun in English.

One option is to use the impersonal first person pronoun ‘one’:

When one starts a business, one has to make several decisions.

This sounds quite old fashioned, though, while using the second person ‘you’ in the same way can seem a little informal. As such, neither is ideal for modern academic writing.

Another possibility is using ‘he or she’ whenever a gendered pronoun would be required:

When someone starts a business, he or she has to make several decisions.

But this can make your writing seem cluttered or awkward, so isn’t always suitable.

Others have invented dedicated gender neutral third person pronouns, such as ‘ze’ or ‘zie’. However, these are not yet in common use.

The Singular ‘They’

An increasingly popular alternative is to use the third person plural pronouns ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’ to refer to individuals. Technically, this is a non-standard usage, since ‘they’ usually applies to a group:

When wolves hunt, they work in packs.

But it is now often used to refer to an individual when you don’t want to specify a gender:

When someone starts a business, they have to make several decisions.

This neatly avoids forcing the writer to use a gendered pronoun while also being clear and concise.

Nevertheless, since this involves non-standard grammar (the singular ‘someone’ being paired up with the plural verb ‘have’), some consider this use of ‘they’ incorrect. As such, you should always check your style guide for advice on using gendered pronouns if you are unsure.