If you work in a traditionally male-dominated industry, do you put your pronouns in email signatures and business cards – why or why not?

11 comments

1. Nope. I am fine with people being surprised.

   Although, on the phone I will correct people, because my name is similar sounding to a typical masculine name and I have a fucked up voice box due to an old injury so my voice is not in the normal female register. So, it helps to clarify sometimes.

2. No because the way I do my job has nothing at all to do with my gender.

3. No. My name is obvious.

   Think Sheila or Deborah.

   I also don’t disclose my race, religion, sexual orientation, or number of children in my email signature. As it turns out, none of these things are relevant to my professional role.

4. Sure. My coworkers’ genders have nothing to do with my being an ally.

5. Yes, I put my pronouns at the bottom of my email signature in a small, discrete font size. It’s very common to do so in my company; not that I have a lot of trans colleagues or others who might want to proactively communicate their pronouns, but to normalize the practice and to signal that I will make an effort to use preferred pronouns.

   Some colleagues add a little LGBT Ally or Autism Awareness or other logos at the bottom of their email signature too.

6. Oh god no. Don’t want to call attention to being female. No thank you! Get enough bullshit as it is.

7. No I add my degrees

8. Well, i have a very traditional female name (think elizabeth or emily or brigid) so they would figure out my sex real fast.

9. Nope. Some people at work have started doing it. But I have an obviously female name, so no one should mistake me for male, and so far no one has got it wrong.

10. No! I’m lucky enough to have an androgynous name, so why would I give up my chance at being treated like an equal by people I won’t meet? (Vendors, etc)

11. No. Not really interested in calling attention to being a woman. But my name is usually female and I don’t really care if someone misgenders me anyway.