Reimagining Gender: Is Your Organization Ready to Navigate the New Reality

We are all affected in different ways and to different degrees by how cultures and communities construct gender. The challenge is to bring our unique perspectives and experiences to the table free of gender-based constraints. Gender is changing — rapidly. 12% of millennials identify as transgender or gender non-conforming and 23% of Gen Z globally expect to change their gender identity at least once during their lifetime. To be competitive, unlock innovation and attract talent, employees and organizational stakeholders must understand gender and apply an inclusive lens across the business. Organizations need to respect personal perspectives and establish clear organizational expectations. Providing and communicating clear processes and policies as well as determining what is working and what is not is key.

Gender is the inherent aspect of a person. Individuals do not choose their gender, but the term used to communicate their gender identity may change over time. A person’s gender identity can correspond or differ from the sex they were designated at birth or their sexual orientation. People who express gender outside of social norms often have a difficult experience. As an organization we want to allow employees to bring their whole and true self to the workplace.

Recent attention to pronouns and gender has highlighted the need to understand that a pronoun does not tell you everything about a person’s gender. Pronouns are a really important way that our gender is reflected to the world. Pronouns are the words that you use to refer to someone in the third person in place of their name (such as he/him, she/her, and they/them). Try using ‘they/them’ if you do not know someone’s pronouns, or if you’re writing about a hypothetical person who could be of any gender.  Gender identity is complex. No one should ever be forced to share their pronoun but you can share yours and ask “How can I refer to you?“ Some people don’t use pronouns at all and just prefer their name be used. It takes some getting use to but practice makes perfect.

It is important to bring the gender lens to every aspect of the organization, including recruiting, internal employees, marketing and customer facing. An intentional and strategic approach to creating processes and policies needs to be inclusive and expansive of gender.

We can all be leaders by learning and expanding our understanding of gender. Listening to others’ experiences and acknowledging what we don’t know is the start. Committing to deepening our understanding supports the level of responsibility and influence we all have.

I recommend the webinar, Reimagining Gender: Is Your Organization Ready to Navigate This New Reality

Discussion Points include:

• Gender’s relationship to sex and sexuality
• The evolving language of gender identity
• Common gender mistakes to avoid at work
• Practical actions and approaches you can implement immediately to reimagine gender at your organization

Author: Sandy Moran, HR Business Partner