Students come to college for a change and for most this is their first time away from home. Some students come looking for acceptance and a chance to freely be themselves. Individuals that identify as transgender or gender-variant have a difficult time finding a way to be themselves in this setting when they do not have a safe place to live. This research examines students who live in campus housing at a large, Midwestern institution. Past research on transgender issues is presented in its limited availability along with the results of an electronic survey of student opinions of gender-neutral housing and restrooms. The possibility of instituting such changes at this specific institution is examined.

This essay outlines the problems associated with the history and current absence of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun in the English language. The combination of the social and grammatical consequences of this language gap results in pronoun choices that are either politically incorrect or verbose. Experts’ attempts to fill this language gap have failed to take root on any widespread basis; but, interestingly, middle school children in Baltimore, Maryland created and started using “yo” as their own gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun. Stotko and Troyer’s (2007) study on this development sheds some light on exactly how students use “yo” as a third-person pronoun and proposes some theories regarding the origin of this change in language. This spontaneously produced gender-neutral pronoun has gained as much recognition as many gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronouns proposed by linguistic experts, perhaps as a result of children’s unique understanding of and ability to create language. This recent development indicates that common English speakers will likely spontaneously generate a solution to the current pronoun gap, although this will probably take some time to occur.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur förskolepersonal uppfattar en användning av det könsneutrala pronomenet hen inom förskolan. Våra frågeställningar är: ”Hur uppfattar förskolepersonalen möjligheten att använda hen som könsneutralt pronomen inom förskolan?” samt ”Anser förskolepersonalen att det finns några användningsområden där det könsneutrala pronomenet hen kan ingå?”. I denna undersökning användes en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod där vi utförde 11 kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer med förskolepersonal från fem förskolor. Den inspelade empirin dokumenterades med hjälp av diktafon som sedan transkriberades och analyserades. I studien framkom hur informanterna uppfattade genus och kön på förskolan. Vi tolkade att den uppfattningen speglade informanternas inställning till ordet hen. Undersökningen visade på i hur stor utsträckning förskolepersonalen använde sig av pronomen som hon/han. Vi tolkade att informanterna har utgått ifrån ett biologiskt och heteronormativt perspektiv när de talat om kön och könsidentitet. De uttryckte att de inte gjorde skillnad på "flickor" och "pojkar" och ansåg att de arbetade utifrån ett individperspektiv men istället påvisades motsatsen. Vår slutsats är att informanterna hade svårt att se användningsområden med ett könsneutralt pronomen. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool employees perceive a usage of the gender-neutral pronoun hen within Swedish preschools. Our questions are: ”How do the preschool employees in this study perceive the possibility of using hen as a gender-neutral pronoun within the preschool environment?” and ”Do they think that there are any fields of usage of hen that can be applied in this environment?” This study was carried out with a qualitative method of investigation and 11 qualitative research interviews with preschool employees from five different preschools. The recorded empirical information was documented with a dictaphone whereupon the data was transcribed and analyzed. The study revealed how the informants perceived gender and sex in the preschool environment. We interpreted this perception as a reflection of the attitudes to the word hen among the informants. The results showed to what extent the preschool employees used pronouns like hon/han. We interpreted that the perspective among the informants when discussing gender and gender identity was biological and heteronormative. The informants claimed that they did not make any difference between girls and boys and they felt that they were working from an individual perspective. However, on the contrary, we proved the opposite. Our conclusion is that the informants found it difficult to see the range of application of the gender-neutral pronoun.

<p>The aim of this essay was to investigate the knowledge of, and attitudes towards unbiased English usage amongst Swedish upper secondary school students. For the purpose of this study, a survey was carried out at an upper secondary school in southern Sweden. In the theoretical background section, terms such as political correctness and gender-neutral language use are defined. In addition, references are made to studies in the United States and Europe on students’ awareness of these aspects of language.</p><p>For the present study, a survey was carried out in which 41 students answered 13 questions in written form. The students attend their third year at four different programmes at upper secondary school.</p><p>The results show that a majority of the students are very aware of the sensitivity of referring to persons of colour, and they are even afraid of being perceived as racists if they use terms such as black American. As regards non-sexist language use, the Swedish students were aware of the fact that terms such as firefighter and police officer can be used to designate both men and women. However, the students have little knowledge of the title Ms and of the neutral alternative to chairman, chair.</p>

The gender-neutral pronoun hen has been added to the Swedish language with the aim to reduce sexism in the language and make language more inclusive. An objection against the implementation of the word is that the word would be cumbersome to read and would take more cognitive capacity to process. The present study examined if that concern is warranted. 209 participants self-paced read five texts with three pronouns each. Participants were randomly distributed to conditions containing only hen, he/she, she, or he as pronouns. No difference was found between reading speed in the condition containing hen as a pronoun in comparison with the conditions using han, hon or han/hon. No overall difference in memory recall was found either. However, sexism was found to be a moderator for memory recall when reading a text including hen, leading to lower memory recall for individuals scoring high on modern sexism.

<p>This essay focuses on men’s construction of feminism and gender and views on equality between the sexes. The purpose of the essay is met through interviews with eight men on their thoughts and constructions of these issues. The answers from the interviewed men were analysed with a radical feminist and gender perspective approach. The sources used in the analysis of the material, in the aspect of gender, were from the work of Judith Butler, Robert W. Connell and Yvonne Hirdman. The conclusion that can be drawn from this essay is that men view feminism as something positive but feminists as negative which is in line with results from previously published studies. Regarding gender the interviewed men were unfamiliar with the term and they discussed gender in terms of masculinity as something they felt did not apply to them. Equality between the sexes is by the interviewed men only pointed out and discussed as inequality in the labour market. This combined with a radical feminist analysis is interpreted as a denial of a feminist analysis that regards women as oppressed in all aspects of society not just in the labour market.</p>

<p>This study investigates interaction in eight sibling pairs aged 1-5 years with the purpose of examining the prevalence of certain variables constituting the interaction. The siblings were observed with video camera while playing with a toy brought along by the author. In order to validate and expand upon the information obtained from the observations, the parent(s) were asked to respond to a number of questions from a Questionnaire. The variables investigated were reciprocal and complementary interaction, asymmetrical roles, imitation, conflict, joint and parallel play and communication. The results obtained indicate that, in these eight sibling pairs, reciprocal interaction, that is interaction taking place on an equal level, is signified by joint play. Complementary interaction, that is interaction taking place on different levels, is signified by parallel play. High activity level for boys versus low activity level for girls in three sibling pairs were observed to correspond to gender-specific play activities in everyday life.</p>

This essay focuses on men’s construction of feminism and gender and views on equality between the sexes. The purpose of the essay is met through interviews with eight men on their thoughts and constructions of these issues. The answers from the interviewed men were analysed with a radical feminist and gender perspective approach. The sources used in the analysis of the material, in the aspect of gender, were from the work of Judith Butler, Robert W. Connell and Yvonne Hirdman. The conclusion that can be drawn from this essay is that men view feminism as something positive but feminists as negative which is in line with results from previously published studies. Regarding gender the interviewed men were unfamiliar with the term and they discussed gender in terms of masculinity as something they felt did not apply to them. Equality between the sexes is by the interviewed men only pointed out and discussed as inequality in the labour market. This combined with a radical feminist analysis is interpreted as a denial of a feminist analysis that regards women as oppressed in all aspects of society not just in the labour market.

When Fredrik Reinfeldt during the TV4 broadcasting of the Ice hockey World Cup final in 2013 was titled Prime Minister instead of State minister it caused a twitter storm. Denominantions are important to us because they are so closely tied to our identity. We may even get upset on behalf of others. A language reform concerning personal pronouns therefore affect many. The gender- neutral pronoun hen received much media attention in 2012. Emotions ran high among both proponents and opponents who shared their opinions on various forums. In this study, seven debate articles that appeared in Swedish metropolitan press in 2012 are being analyzed from a rhetorical perspective. The intention is to investigate whether the debate is being conducted around the same topos, if misleading arguments occur, and to understand if proponents and opponents are trying to persuade each other and readers of their opinion. The result shows that the arguments often revolve around the same topos, but rests on such different values ​​that a comprehension between the parties does not seem likely in the current situation.

The effect of gender-neutral language in a survey designed to measure unwanted sexual experiences was examined. Methodological issues pertaining to survey design and significant variability in prevalence estimates of sexual violence demonstrate that further refinement of self-report instruments is necessary. As a variety of macrolevel forces influence individual behavior, the current study contends that coercive tactics used to obtain sex in mixed-gender interactions are normalized by the traditional heterosex script and conveyed through gender-specific language. Reference to respondents’ sexual partners in gender-neutral, as opposed to gender-specific terms, was hypothesized to result in more disclosure of sexually coercive victimization and perpetration experiences. Logistic regression analyses revealed no statistically significant differences in disclosure between language conditions. Null findings are interpreted with reference to the broader gender-neutral language literature and implications for future research are suggested.