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To pronoun or not pronoun, "why"​ is the question

By Chad Edwards, Creative Director - EY Global, GPG-E & Unity Co-chair 

Why do we use the pronoun statement in our email communications became a topic today. At the core it’s just a simple act of respect which helps others avoid assuming and you know what they say about the word assume, right? I’ll use myself as a real-life example… Chad, seems like it’s a common name, well if you’re American it does. To those in other countries, this is not a common name and sometimes unfamiliar. Working for a global organisation I interact with various people from many cultures a majority of the time. I received a communication some months back that assumed that I was a female. Admittedly I was a little shocked at first, I read that message with a single-minded perspective of “how do they not know I am a male” in my head. I realised this was an unfair presumption on my part based on personal bias. Not long after I received an email from a colleague and noticed under their name a statement that read, my pronouns are She/Her and I immediately went to my own email signature and added mine. There are hundreds of gender fluid names so why not save yourself from a potential misstep and add your preferred pronouns to your communications. This small task encourages transparency, inspires inclusion and most of all lets others know we feel we belong.

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