Gender Neutral Personal Pronouns

Gender Identity Complexities Framework (GICF), a framework guided by axioms, with principles and commitments is a tool produced for educators to guide, both themselves and students, to experience gender identity self-determination  and usher in gender identity justice.  Ultimately, stakeholders who practice this framework have increased capacities to shift mindsets and physical environments and lead to new way of thinking about and playing with inventing language.

RESUMO. O presente trabalho possui como objetivo verificar e analisar os usos de uma terceira marca de gênero no português brasileiro, realizado na utilização de neopronomes, como nos sistemas 'elu', 'ile', 'ilu' e 'el', e na ampliação de marcas distintivas de gênero na língua, tal como o uso do-e no final de nomes. A justificativa desta investigação é pautada na novidade do fenômeno na língua e, de forma consequente, nos estudos linguísticos, formando-se como uma nova problemática de investigação. Para tanto, lançamos mão de estudos sobre a categoria de gênero gramatical desenvolvidos por Câmara Jr. (1970), Rocha (1998) e Corbett (1991). Destacam-se também os estudos de Benveniste (1995) e Neves (2000) sobre a classe dos pronomes, com intuito de compreender a implementação dos neopronomes e a sua relação com um novo valor de gênero. Além do trabalho de Hall (2006) que permeia as questões de identidade dos sujeitos. Desse modo, a partir de uma coleta de dados realizada na rede social X, por meio de um procedimento de raspagem, foram analisados os usos dos neopronomes no português brasileiro. Nesse sentido, os 364 dados de neopronomes foram submetidos a uma análise estatística, utilizando a plataforma R, na qual foi observada a proporção de frequência de uso, o contexto semântico desses usos e o padrão de concordância nominal desencadeado pelos neopronomes. Assim, como resultado foi observado que o sistema 'elu' apresentou uma maior frequência de usos. Além disso, as utilizações de neopronomes apresentaram uma maior relevância para uma referência genérica dos sujeitos, recuperando identidades binárias e não binárias na língua, e pouco impacto no padrão de concordância da língua.

RESUMO. No intuito de debater o condicionamento das normas sociais na implementação de novas formas linguísticas em uma comunidade de fala, discuto no presente trabalho a relação entre as atitudes de uma amostra de falantes do português brasileiro diante da plausibilidade da adoção de estratégias para uma linguagem não-binária, abarcando-se a possibilidade de inserção na gramática desta língua de neopronomes, e suas percepções sobre essa mesma linguagem. Com respaldo na ideia de que em todas as sociedades circulam ideologias linguísticas, entendidas como compreensões socialmente incorporadas sobre a natureza, a estrutura e os usos linguísticos, parto da premissa sociolinguística da percepção enquanto julgamento do interlocutor, ao correlacionar fatores sociais a traços sociolinguísticos, constituindo um padrão de consciência social na comunidade. E, por seu turno, atitudes enquanto reações, positivas ou negativas, desse interlocutor diante da possibilidade de implementação de novas formas pronominais para gênero. A discussão parte de um experimento piloto offline feito com 144 participantes, que responderam a um questionário online contendo questões sobre (a) seu perfil social, (b) suas percepções quanto ao uso dos pronomes canônicos de terceira pessoa, os quais exprimem marca de gênero na língua, (c) suas percepções sobre mudança linguística e gênero gramatical, e, por fim, (d) sua opinião diante do uso de pronomes não-binários. Os resultados da amostra demonstram divergência entre suas atitudes, motivadas por ideologias linguísticas conservadoras, e suas percepções linguísticas, que tenderam a ser progressistas. Palavras-chave: atitudes linguísticas; percepção linguística; ideologia linguística; pronomes não-binários.

neutre », ou à leur caractère révolutionnaire dans d'autres champs que la linguistique, et au sein desquels ces autaires 2 n'oseraient pas s'aventurer. Cet évitement ou cette méconnaissance de la découverte scientifique dans la recherche linguistique sur le français inclusif tient peut-être également à l'autorité de la démarche structuraliste, qui étudie la langue en s'attachant aux formes plutôt qu'à leur contenu. Notre positionnement théorique choisit d'appréhender la langue par les formes sans négliger de placer dès le départ de notre réflexion un état des lieux de cette pensée révolutionnaire, pour comprendre le fait social à l'oeuvre dans le fait linguistique. Dans un second temps, nous présentons l'ensemble de nos observables dits « de genre neutre » à travers des attestations puisées dans les usages réels. Car si, en histoire, les révolutions sont des « évolutions qui entraînent un bouleversement dans l'ordre social, moral et économique » (cnrtl.fr/définition/révolution) ce sont également, en physique, un « mouvement », et plus précisément une « courbe fermée autour d'un axe ou d'un point, réel ou fictif, dont le point de retour coïncide avec le point de départ. » (ibid.). Ce mouvement qui revient sur lui-même, nous pouvons l'observer dans la réactivation des unités de genre neutre douze siècles après leur attestation en ancien et moyen français

This master’s thesis adopts a theoretical framework consisting of sociolinguistics, queer linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and situated approaches with the aim of analysing the interviews held with three nonbinary English speakers reflecting on their linguistic, discursive and social experiences with existing in French. By focusing on their epilinguistic discourses and situated knowledges – regarding their self-trans/i/la/tion from gender neutrality to gender binary rather than their linguistic practices – the master’s thesis aims to provide a critical and queer comparison of their subjectivation processes in the two respective linguistic spaces stemming from the differences in grammatical gender in English and French as well as the overall culture and language ideologies inherent to France and English-speaking countries as perceived, experienced and identified by the interviewees. The prioritisation of the epilinguistic discourses and situated knowledges of the interviewees allows for a wide range of analysis points regarding linguistic and discursive gender expression as well as the discourse of the authorities in the French context regarding the pronoun iel. The master’s thesis also has the ultimate aim of querying the potential for a queer sociolinguistics by adopting a bottom-up approach that mobilises a specific combination of critical, situated and queer theories and methodologies.
Keywords: epilinguistic discourse, situated knowledges, queer sociolinguistics, queer linguistics, linguistic gender expression, critical discourse analysis, self-transilation, imaginaires linguistiques, abjection, exclusionary matrix

The present study aims to investigate how gender stereotypes affect people's gender attribution to social robots. To this end, we examined whether a robot can be attributed a gender depending on a performed action. The study consists of 3 stages. In the first stage, we determined masculine and feminine actions by a survey conducted with 54 participants. In the second stage, we selected a gender-neutral robot by having 76 participants rate several robot stimuli in the masculine-feminine spectrum. In the third stage, we created short animation videos in which the gender-neutral robot determined in stage two performed the masculine and feminine actions determined in stage one. We then asked 102 participants to evaluate the robot in the videos in the masculine-feminine spectrum. We asked them to rate the videos according to their own view (self-view) and how they thought the society would evaluate them (society-view). We also used the Socialization of Gender Norms Scale (SGNS) to id...

The present study aims to investigate how gender stereotypes affect people's gender attribution to social robots. To this end, we examined whether a robot can be attributed a gender depending on a performed action. The study consists of 3 stages. In the first stage, we determined masculine and feminine actions by a survey conducted with 54 participants. In the second stage, we selected a gender-neutral robot by having 76 participants rate several robot stimuli in the masculine-feminine spectrum. In the third stage, we created short animation videos in which the gender-neutral robot determined in stage two performed the masculine and feminine actions determined in stage one. We then asked 102 participants to evaluate the robot in the videos in the masculine-feminine spectrum. We asked them to rate the videos according to their own view (self-view) and how they thought the society would evaluate them (society-view). We also used the Socialization of Gender Norms Scale (SGNS) to id...

We examine emerging practices of pronoun disclosure, discovery, and repair after the procedural turn in pronoun politics, which shifted attention from the *substantive* question of *which* pronouns should be used to the *procedural* question of *how* preferred pronouns, whatever they might be, could be effectively communicated to others. Drawing on interviews with and observations of college students and recent graduates who are committed in principle to using preferred pronouns, we consider how they seek to do so in practice, focusing on practices of disclosure, discovery, and repair. We underscore the gap between the knowledge that is required in principle to use preferred pronouns consistently and the imperfect knowledge that pronoun-users have in practice, and we show how the use of preferred pronouns creates new forms of interactional accountability.

In the late 2000s, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others) identities began to surface in Indian audiovisual marketing campaigns. By 2021, brands had produced at least 105 advertisements featuring LGBTQ+ identities. This research conducts an analysis of these campaigns, examining aspects such as their release date, featured characters, gender identity, sexual orientation, character age, narrative usage, genre, theme, and setting. The study reveals a substantial surge in advertising campaigns since 2018, with brands strategically launching them during Pride Month, Valentine's Day, and Women's Day. Characters embodying gay, lesbian, and transgender identities were most prevalent. Advertisements spotlighting gay, lesbian, or both gay and lesbian characters predominantly emphasised themes of love, featuring youthful characters and urban settings. In contrast, advertisements featuring transgender characters centred on human rights, with older characters and non-urban settings. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the number of LGBTQ+ marketing campaigns should continue to rise, diversifying character identities, ages, and settings while being released throughout the year.

Gender is a social framework through which people organize themselves-and non-human subjects, including robots. Research stretching back decades has found evidence that people tend to gender artificial agents unwittingly, even with the slightest cue of humanlike features in voice, body, role, and other social features. This has led to the notion of gender neutrality in robots: ways in which we can avoid gendering robots in line with human models, as well explorations of extra-human genders. This rapid review critically surveyed the literature to capture the state of art on gender neutrality in robots that interact with people. We present findings on theory, methods, results, and reflexivity. We interrogate the very idea that robot gender/ing can be neutral and explore alternate ways of approaching gender/ing through the design and study of robots interacting with people.

Gender is a primary characteristic by which people organize themselves. Previous research has shown that people tend to unknowingly ascribe gender to robots based on features of their embodiment. Yet, robots are not necessarily ascribed the same, or any, gender by different people. Indeed, robots may be ascribed non-human genders or used as "genderless" alternatives. This underlies the notion of gender neutrality in robots: neither masculine nor feminine but somewhere in between or even beyond gender. Responding to calls for gender as a locus of study within robotics, we offer a framework for conducting an open living review to be updated periodically as work emerges. Significantly, we provide an open, formalized submission process and open access dataset of research on gender neutrality in robots. This novel and timely approach to consensus-building is expected to pave the way for similar endeavours on other key topics within human-robot interaction research.

The skewing sex ratio in India has become an issue of concern, as it will lead to serious demographic disparity and adverse social consequences. Although the overall sex ratio for the entire population in India has shown an improvement, the last two decades have shown a deterioration of the Child Sex Ratio. A great number of studies have been devoted to analyze such declining sex ratio. An attempt has been made to review studies which have focused on socioeconomic and other factors related to this complex phenomena and repercussions of imbalance sex ratio occurring in the country. This paper studies these aspects in three broad parts. The first part deals with the studies related to the estimation of missing women, the second part of the literature review showcases studies related to causes and determinants of declining sex ratio, and the third and last part deals with the studies on repercussions of Declining Sex Ratio.

Adolescence marks an important time in the process of human development, the passage between childhood and adulthood. Good health in adolescence is central to wellbeing and the bedrock for good health in later life. Young generation they have more sensitivity in their thinking, become attempting suicides. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the Adolescent Health Strategy which serves as a guiding document for planning, implementing and monitoring adolescent health initiatives in India. The paper is based on primary and secondary data with the objectives of to understand the dimensional aspects of health, to analyze the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, to examine the aspects of health dimensions among adolescence and to understand the necessity of professional social work interventions among the adolescence. The study covers 140 samples size includes both boys and girls by self structured interview scheduled in Ballari district, Karnataka. It covers the age group of 12-18years. It focuses on professional social work interventions among various dimensional aspects of health such as physical, social, emotional and spirituality among the adolescence in contemporary period. It implies the adverse effect pertaining to have a good health. The paper suggests the role of Government and Non Government Organizations and for effective implementation of the Health policies and services to the adolescence in India.

This chapter considers recent advances in communications technology as part of the online/offline nexus that characterizes the contemporary social experience of those with internet access. The affordances and constraints associated with different platforms are outlined, tracing how they might have influenced pronoun use and how they may continue to do so in future. The chapter covers topics related to pronoun use such as register, politeness, character limitation, and pronoun innovation. It also explores how online discourses about pronouns, as part of movements towards gender inclusivity, have contributed to the politiciziation of pronouns.

This acceptability-judgment survey of English neopronouns, including xe, fae, ey, and ze, shows that while neopronouns are not fully ungrammatical for most English speakers, they are rated as less grammatical than canonical third-person singular pronouns like she, he, and they. We found that several social variables correlated with ratings of neopronouns in sentences, including age, gender, and sexual orientation. The neopronouns that bear orthographic resemblance to canonical pronouns were rated highest, and metalinguistic comments from participants identified that analogy was an important factor in whether they found neopronouns grammatical.

What is a pronoun?-A pronoun is a word that refers to either the people talking (like I or you) or someone or something that is being talked about (like she, it, them, and this).-What is a "gender pronoun"?-Gender pronouns (like he and hers) specifically refer to people that you are talking about. It can also be the pronoun that a person chooses to use for themself. For example: If Xena's pronouns are she, her, and hers, you could say "Xena ate her food because she was hungry."

Like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Shakespeare’s Sonnets challenge the binaries between gender and between the vernacular and the literary. Translators take up this challenge and turn it into an opportunity for humanist interpretations of literature, as in the case of Taiwanese essayist Liang Shiqiu’s (1903–1987) translation.

Widely known in the Sinophone world as the only poet to have single-handedly translated and annotated all of Shakespeare’s works into vernacular Chinese, Liang uses translations of the Western canon to (1) promote the written vernacular (baihua wen) during a time when classical Chinese was regarded as the preferred vehicle for literature; and (2) to render the sonnets more gender neutral. Based on W. J. Craig’s Oxford edition (a 1943 reprint), Liang’s annotated translation of the Sonnets gloss over what he considers unpalatable sexual references.

The translation also brushes aside the (then sensitive) question of a male speaker asking a young man to reproduce in Sonnets 1–17. Since gendered pronouns are sometimes interchangeable in the Chinese language, Liang avoided having to assign male or female identities to a speaker in the poems. While Liang pursued a gender-neutral vernacular translation with a conservative agenda, his version turns out to be ahead of his time, as the revisionist approaches of Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells demonstrate the addressees in many sonnets cannot be gendered because the context is fluid and ambiguous.

The research focuses on designing gender-neutral Software Engineering programs as a tool to reach gender balance in this domain. There is a general lack of female students and subsequently employees in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics. The attempts of attracting females in technologies have a long history and most topic related studies agree that the main reason for the low ratio of women in STEM is a result of gender stereotypes. This article reviews how gender stereotypes affect students' interest in Software Engineering. The reason we considered gender-neutrality as a tool to achieve gender balance in Software Engineering lies in the fact that both genders experience the pressure of the stereotypes. Studies show that men are not likely to choose feminine products/jobs. Thus, making the educational program more attractive for females could discourage some males from enrolling. Our work considers different approaches to archive gender-neutrality and we present recommendations for gender-neutral program designs, which combine the considered approaches to gender-neutrality.

Dette speciale undersøger den historiske udvikling af danske kønsinklusive
pronomener som hen, entals-de, høn m.fl. Med kønsinklusive menes der pronomener, der både kan
bruges som kønsneutral reference, hvor man undlader at indikere kønnet på referenten, og som
nonbinær reference, hvor referenten indekseres specifikt som af nonbinært køn. Specialet benytter
en kombination af metoder fra kritisk diskursanalyse, lingvistisk etnografi, autoetnografi, historisk
lingvistik og korpuslingvistik til at analysere forskelligartet data fra en periode på 80 år med
henblik på at identificere, hvornår forskellige pronomener er blevet introduceret, diskuteret og
brugt. Data består dels af skrevne kilder, såsom avisartikler, magasiner, leksikografiske korpora,
hjemmesider, fiktionstekster og dagbøger, og dels af andre visuelle materialer såsom billeder,
tegninger og videoer. Dertil er analysen også baseret på kvalitative interviews med danske queer,
transkønnede og nonbinære personer i alderen 20 til 70 år. Specialet konkluderer at den historiske
udvikling af danske kønsinklusive pronomener kan beskrives som to primære bølger, der følger
generelle samfundsmæssige udviklinger i forhold til køn(sopfattelser). Første bølge viser sig som
diskussioner om kønsneutrale pronomener i avismedier og fagblade i perioden 1968 til 1983, hvor
tidens fremskridt inden for ligestilling og kvinderettigheder gav anledning til debatten. I årene efter blev pronomenerne høn og hyn blev brugt i begrænset omfang. Anden bølge begyndte i slut2000’erne og særligt fra og med 2011, i begyndelsen især fokuseret på det svenske pronomen hen.
Her begyndte visse danskere at bruge hen, samt den og senere de som nonbinære pronomener.
Første bølge kan siges at være karakteriseret af primær metalingvistisk diskussion, et fokus på
kønsneutralitet, samt at introducere nye ord som hæn, hyn, huan og høn eller genanvende
eksisterende danske ord som hin og den. Anden bølge er derimod i højere grad karakteriseret af en
begyndende referentiel brug af kønsinklusive pronomener (om end metalingvistisk diskussion
stadig er udbredt), et fokus på sproglig inklusion af nonbinære personer, og primært i form af
(oversættelses)lån af svensk hen og engelsk they (oversat til de), samt i mindre grad fortsat brug
af den. Udover en kronologisk beskrivelse af denne udvikling identificerer specialet også en række
diskurser om pronomener, pronomenbrug og køn, hvilke specialet argumenterer for har påvirket
både pronomenernes udvikling samt andre samfundsmæssige forhold for danske kønsminoriteter.
Det konkluderes at umiddelbart sprogligt fokuserede diskussioner om pronomener typisk er bundet
op på værdier omkring køn, og at de specifikke pronomeners levedygtighed i høj grad har at gøre
med deres sociopolitiske kontekst og konnotationer, med den følge at der må tages højde for dette
i forbindelse med leksikografisk og anden sproginstitutionel behandling af ordene.

The fact that the English language lacks a gender-neutral pronoun has prompted the use of forms already existing in the language such as the pronominal alternatives he, he or she and they. The purpose of this study is to analyse the choice of the epicene pronoun in two different corpora: a) a corpus of textbooks on the social sciences covering the period 1995-2005 and b) a corpus of online editions of UK and US newspapers consulted in the first half of 2007. The analysis has been carried out taking into account the occurrence of the three pronominal variants with three different types of antecedents: definite, indefinite and quantifier. We argue that pronominal choice is sensitive to the linguistic context and to the type of genre. The results show that there is a direct relationship between the pronominal form used and the type of antecedent and an indirect relationship between the use of the epicene variants and the type of genre.

The Indian penal law exonerates a man for committing rape with his wife, if she is above the age of 18 years. The demands for criminalization of marital rape in the recent past have evoked polarized responses in the community. The comment by former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, that marital rape need not be an offence has reignited this debate. This chapter aims to examine the issue of criminalization by evaluating the underlying policy considerations. The dignity of an individual, sexual autonomy, institution of marriage and respect to theories of criminalization have been identified as the key policy considerations. It is argued that these policy considerations shall be kept in mind while making any argument about the criminalization of marital rape.This argument is in furtherance of the argument that unmindful enactment of criminal law results in overcriminalization. Therefore, the policy considerations adopted a balanced and reasoned approach in answering the questions of criminalizing marital rape. The other important aspect which needs to be considered before undertaking the question of criminalization is to understand the ‘judicial pulse’. Even after a new law is passed, the precedents and the mindset of judges is crucial in determining the efficacy of the law. Judiciary is tasked with the implementation of law and therefore, in order to predict, how judiciary will react to criminalization of marital rape, an attempt has been made to determine the judicial attitude in interpreting existing rape laws. Based on judicial attitude, policy considerations and existing legislative framework to deal with rape offences, this chapter present the challenges and prospects in criminalizing marital rape in India.

Gender is a primary characteristic by which people organize themselves. Previous research has shown that people tend to unknowingly ascribe gender to robots based on features of their embodiment. Yet, robots are not necessarily ascribed the same, or any, gender by different people. Indeed, robots may be ascribed non-human genders or used as "genderless" alternatives. This underlies the notion of gender neutrality in robots: neither masculine nor feminine but somewhere in between or even beyond gender. Responding to calls for gender as a locus of study within robotics, we offer a framework for conducting an open living review to be updated periodically as work emerges. Significantly, we provide an open, formalized submission process and open access dataset of research on gender neutrality in robots. This novel and timely approach to consensus-building is expected to pave the way for similar endeavours on other key topics within human-robot interaction research.

One area of English where inventiveness is regularly at play is that of language reform, or at least of attempts at reforming the language. Unlike cases of individual creativity, where a single speaker toys with the language, with reform, the aim is from the start for the suggested innovation to spread, usually so that it might become part of the standard language. In order to understand better what might be at work in such alterations of the language, the present study focuses on one area: that of pronominal gender. It is a case of grammatical change, as opposed to purely lexical innovation. The history of modern English shows regular

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate what epicene pronouns are selected by native Finnish and German speakers when using second language, in this case English, when the gender of the referent is unknown. There is an abundance of research on epicene pronoun use among native English speakers. Previous research shows that the use of generic he has declined in contexts where the gender of the referent is unknown or when it is irrelevant. However, the use of epicene pronouns in English has not been widely studied in EFL contexts. This study aims to offer more information on the influence of the structures and language ideology of first language in second language use. Previous research in sociolinguistics shows that previously widely used generic he as an epicene pronoun has decreased since the 1970s, which has also been influenced by the strong position of the feminist movement on gendered pronouns. Previous research also demonstrates that native English speakers prefer...

Gender is a social framework through which people organize themselves-and non-human subjects, including robots. Research stretching back decades has found evidence that people tend to gender artificial agents unwittingly, even with the slightest cue of humanlike features in voice, body, role, and other social features. This has led to the notion of gender neutrality in robots: ways in which we can avoid gendering robots in line with human models, as well explorations of extra-human genders. This rapid review critically surveyed the literature to capture the state of art on gender neutrality in robots that interact with people. We present findings on theory, methods, results, and reflexivity. We interrogate the very idea that robot gender/ing can be neutral and explore alternate ways of approaching gender/ing through the design and study of robots interacting with people.

Gender is a primary characteristic by which people organize themselves. Previous research has shown that people tend to unknowingly ascribe gender to robots based on features of their embodiment. Yet, robots are not necessarily ascribed the same, or any, gender by different people. Indeed, robots may be ascribed non-human genders or used as "genderless" alternatives. This underlies the notion of gender neutrality in robots: neither masculine nor feminine but somewhere in between or even beyond gender. Responding to calls for gender as a locus of study within robotics, we offer a framework for conducting an open living review to be updated periodically as work emerges. Significantly, we provide an open, formalized submission process and open access dataset of research on gender neutrality in robots. This novel and timely approach to consensus-building is expected to pave the way for similar endeavours on other key topics within human-robot interaction research.

Gender/ing guides how we view ourselves, the world around us, and each other—including non-humans. Critical voices have raised the alarm about stereotyped gendering in the design of socially embodied artificial agents like voice assistants, conversational agents, and robots. Yet, little is known about how this plays out in research and to what extent. As a first step, we critically reviewed the case of Pepper, a gender-ambiguous humanoid robot. We conducted a systematic review (n=75) involving meta-synthesis and content analysis, examining how participants and researchers gendered Pepper through stated and unstated signifiers and pronoun usage. We found that ascriptions of Pepper's gender were inconsistent, limited, and at times discordant, with little evidence of conscious gendering and some indication of researcher influence on participant gendering. We offer six challenges driving the state of affairs and a practical framework coupled with a critical checklist for centering gender in research on artificial agents.

Employee Productivity which measures the output relative to the input per person with reference to a point of time is a major dynamic and vigorous concern of any organizations as it is engage in shaping the success of an organization. The organizations in Apparel Industry is highly employee oriented and their employees are the main driving force of the success where the employers pay their highest attention on maintaining job satisfaction on their valuable assets, employees. This study is an attempt to find out the impact of employee job satisfaction by different perspectives on employee productivity. Therefore apparent three perspectives has been chosen for the study at the assumption of other perspectives are been constant where if any. Employee relation which engrosses proper relationship between employer and employee is one of the perspectives emphasized as a sub division of job satisfaction. Organizational culture and Competitor organizations are the perspectives other than employee relations for employee job satisfaction. Organization culture and Competitor organizations refer to peers and subordinates relationships at the organization and attitudes towards competitor organizations or other similar organizations respectively. More specifically this study underscores which perspective has the highest impact on employee job satisfaction in varying employee productivity as a whole. The study was conducted in Colombo District. Both primary and secondary data were used in this study where primary data was collected through questionnaires from the sample of 200 employees selected by the stratified random sampling techniques and secondary data was used to gain information towards dependent variable, employee productivity which measured by the organization specifically. Further descriptive analysis and chi-square analysis were used to analysis of data with the tool of SPSS software. This study came out with the results that employee satisfaction towards employee relations has the highest impact on employee productivity other than the satisfaction towards organizational culture and competitor organizations. The least impact on employee productivity has given by competitor organizations. Therefore the management of the organizations included to Apparel Industry of Sri Lanka should be considered about maintaining healthy relationship between employer and employee as well as employee and employee in order to ensure employee job satisfaction which enhance employee productivity that resulting success of the organization

Even though Shakespeare’s plays were initially performed by all-male casts, they were designed to appeal to diverse audiences. Many modern adaptations reimagine those plays as expressions of gender nonconformity. Over the past decades, prominent films and theater works have fostered new public conversations about the politics of appropriating gender identities in Shakespeare’s plays around the world. This chapter makes an intervention in both transgender and Shakespeare studies by reading traditionally binary characters as transgender to shed new light on performances of gender identities in a global context. Viola as Cesario, for instance, is a trans masculine character, as she does not cross-dress for entertainment or mischief. She never recovers her “maiden’s weeds” at the end of Twelfth Night. We could deploy transgender theories to examine other cases as well, such as the practice of cross-gender casting (Julie Taymor’s 2010 film The Tempest), gender-bending performances (contemporary productions of Jacob Gordin’s 1898 play The Jewish Queen Lear), and postgender adaptations, in which gender is not treated as a meaningful denominator of characterization (Michelle Terry’s 2018 Globe productions). Performance theories inflected by transgender studies destabilize the line between normalcy and the deviant in and beyond scripted performance. ::::: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781683933601/Performing-Shakespearean-Appropriations-Essays-in-Honor-of-Christy-Desmet

Heterosexuality plays a critical part in explaining how the society of our past has been created. This belief that there are two sexes, thus only two genders, is called heteronormativity. However, the nature of sex, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation has changed considerably over the last 20 years, with global political, communal, and cultural shifts bringing the lives of LGBTQ+ to the social forefront. Today's transgendered and queer-gendered are now accepted more than ever before with support groups in schools, big corporation's Human Resources diversity programs, and in community gay-straight alliances showing the solidarity for the movement. Gender equality has been quite challenged in the past few decades. Language has been greatly tested to evolve with the gender mainstreaming matters. We have come a long way from "mankind" to "humankind", from "firemen" to "firefighters" with many more like changes having been accepted in recent years. "Grammatical gender" reveals itself as a noun and the pronouns or adjectives used that follow, change their form according to the gender of noun they refer to. So how can society properly personify non-binary individuals who relate neither to male nor female? What pronouns should be used in order to achieve a "gender fair" language? This paper explores gender history, how LGBTQ+ are currently negotiating their preferred gender identities and how pronouns (s/he, him, her, they, them, ze) corollate to said identities. Understand, the use of new pronouns do not differentiate between a heteronormative binary sex, gender or sexuality but rather reinforce firm gender identities for the inclusion of all.

S Microfinance (MFIs) in Ghana may be considered a risky business. Threats emanate from an unstable macroeconomic environment, the state of security in the country, liquidity challenges, corruption and fraud, political and religious interference, and so on. However, there has been no attempt to systematically map the risks that the sector faces and understand the extent to which they pose a threat to a vibrant and healthy microfinance sector. This is a survey that seeks to assess the risks that are of concern in Ghana's microfinance sector as seen by practitioners in the face of the changing business and macroeconomic environment, as well as keeping in mind the new initiatives and developments in the micro finance sector. The study begins by examining the practitioners understanding of risks within micro finance sector in Ghana then continue to address the issues of the significant risks affecting the microfinance that are of concern to the microfinance sector for the next five ...

Komunikacja międzykulturowa kojarzy się z działaniem na styku różnych środowisk kulturowych i komunikacyjnych. Nie inaczej rzecz ma się w przypadku kompilacji polskiego leksykonu japońskich terminów gramatycznych, jaki powstaje obecnie w ramach grantu NCN (OPUS 10, panel HS2, projekt numer 2015/19/B/HS2/00147) w Katedrze Orientalistyki (Wydział Neofilologii) UAM. Wyzwania, jakie stoją przed projektem, wydają się interesujące zarówno z punktu widzenia niezbędnych decyzji opisowych, jak i interdyscyplinarnych (w tym: z rozróżnieniem na poziomie dyscyplin językoznawstwa ogólnego i japońskiego). W ramach artykułu wyzwanie to podjęto w kontekście próby przedstawienia zarysu projektu odbiorcy polskiemu.

Given the growing awareness of the importance of disruptive innovation (DI) in both emerging and advanced economies, it becomes meaningful to examine under which circumstances disruptive innovation occurs and how to assess the essential characteristics and success factors for disruptive innovation through opportunity generation to provide a basis for guidance to practitioners. This paper focuses on assessment of disruptive innovation in the particular context of the Republic of China, one of the emerging markets for new management processes and practices. The previous has not been substantially addressed in the literature. Therefore, the intention in this paper is to contribute to bridge this gap through addressing how new innovation processes enable disruptive innovation drawing from Christensen's disruptive innovation and using an assessment framework proposed by Hang and Yu. To examine the above an inductive theory building methodology was carried out utilizing a multiple cas...

The fact that the English language lacks a gender-neutral pronoun has prompted the use of forms already existing in the language such as the pronominal alternatives he, he or she and they. The purpose of this study is to analyse the choice of the epicene pronoun in two different corpora: a) a corpus of textbooks on the social sciences covering the period 1995-2005 and b) a corpus of online editions of UK and US newspapers consulted in the first half of 2007. The analysis has been carried out taking into account the occurrence of the three pronominal variants with three different types of antecedents: definite, indefinite and quantifier. We argue that pronominal choice is sensitive to the linguistic context and to the type of genre. The results show that there is a direct relationship between the pronominal form used and the type of antecedent and an indirect relationship between the use of the epicene variants and the type of genre.

The Danish pronoun de and its inflections are traditionally described as 3rd person plural, but, as this article demonstrates, it is also used as a gender neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. As this pronoun – termed singular de – has not been documented or described in the literature thus far, the purpose of this article is to provide a grammatical description and analysis of singular de and its referential use in interaction. This is based on 104 occurrences of singular de in naturally occurring conversation. It is found that singular de is used with both generic and specific reference, and that interlocutors may use singular de to avoid indexing gender and orienting to it as a relevant topic in talk-in- interaction (gender-unspecified reference) or to index the referent’s gender as neither male nor female (gender-specified reference). The article also parallels between singular de and English singular they, as well as sociolinguistic variation in the use of singular de which coul...

The advent of easily accessible technology has seen the decline in the circulation of physical paper-based newspapers. With the support of this research paper, the authors try to recognize the perception of brand of various financial newspapers. The study has been done by carrying out literature review, conducting short interviews and the survey through questionnaire. The primary data was collected in Western part of Ahmedabad city and the data has been analyzed using statistical tools like ranking method graphs and charts. The authors found that many readers of the financial dailies shown tremendous loyalty towards their preferred brand. We have tried to recommend the economic dailies on the various aspects to be considered for crafting the positive image in the minds of the consumers.

This study looks at organizational commitments and motivational strategies across Estate Surveying and Valuation Firms from the point of view of the young surveyors or employees, i.e. to say that principal consultants or partners/associates are not part of the respondents. The study identified some motivational strategies across firm and the perceptions of young surveyors to these strategies. The study concluded that most of these motivational strategies are not well taken into consideration by different firms judging from the respondents answers to questionnaire distributed, it however recommended that principal Consultants/Partners should as a matter of necessity try to make the recommendations and findings of this research part and parcel of the practice, when this is done young surveyors will attracted to professional practice.

Biographies for children have always been popular among young readers, but they are becoming an increasingly important part of children’s literature in the twenty-first century. Most prominent are the collections offering short life-sketches of historical and contemporary figures who can serve as positive role models for young readers from diverse backgrounds. This article discusses the international bestseller Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women (2016) from a feminist, transnational perspective. Focusing on the authors’ narrative strategies, it investigates how tropes of agency are used to make aware of women’s struggles and successes across time and space. Further, it examines how girls are actively encouraged to continue these legacies. Ultimately, the analysis shows that Goodnight Stories establishes connections between women from diverse countries and continents, and at the same time reveals cross-cultural differences in how the book has been rec...

Bill C-16, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Code and the Criminal Code was a government bill intended to provide equal protection of the law to trans and gender non-binary Canadians. It protects individuals from discrimination within the sphere of federal jurisdiction, as well as protecting against hate propaganda and hate crimes, on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. The opposition to previous legislative attempts to protect trans rights focused on questions of sex-segregated spaces such as public bathrooms. In the course of the debate over Bill C-16, however, a new discourse of opposition emerged: Bill C-16 was said to be a fundamental threat to freedom of expression. This article argues that this claim lacks validity, yet it gained remarkable traction. The article traces the shifting opposition discourse and argues that freedom of expression provided a new and legitimizing discourse for long-standing conservative opposition to trans rights. Finally, it seeks to explain the traction of the specious legal claims, contextualizing them within existing public discourses of political correctness and freedom of expression under attack.

Human immunodeficiency virus, the pathogen causing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), adjudged to be the most significant emerging infectious disease in the world, is causing health, social and developmental problems globally. This study was carried out on subjects recruited at random from various centers in Orashi geopolitical region of Rivers state, Nigeria. This study evaluated the incidence of HIV/AIDS and assessed the HIV/AIDS high risk group in Orashi region. Additionally, it attempted ascertaining the potential impact of HIV/AIDS on other sector of the economy as agriculture, households, labour, and their socio-cultural implications for the society. However, the study showed no significant difference in HIV infection among people of different age groups, with an overall HIV prevalence of 10.6%. The results also showed a negative attitude among the people of the area even when 94% respondents agreed to have heard of HIV/AIDS and 54.9% of respondents have not used a condom before while 56.7% agreed to have had their first sexual experience before age 15. However, the highest HIV prevalence was observed among ages 25-34 and 45-60, but statistical analysis using ANOVA shows no significant difference between age groups and prevalence of HIV infection among the studied population. Finally, it can be deduced from this study that urgent awareness campaign be intensified by both government and non-governmental organizations to reduce the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the area with emphasis on behavioral change and wealth creation.

It was the Oxford University's Students Union (OUSU) which first promoted the use of genderinclusive pronouns to avoid gender-binarism in the English-speaking European academic life. OUSU finds it supportive if students declare their chosen pronouns by which they wish to be addressed at meetings (he, she or ze). Public attention turned to the emergence of the new pronoun. The present study aims to explore the social perception of the newly appearing genderneutral neologism by mapping public attitude towards the idea of institutionally introducing a neopronoun (ze) in the English language for the sake of celebrating gender diversity. The discourse plane investigated in the research was comments given to online newspaper articles. The genre of comments provides insights into the opinions and feelings of the general public. A near-thousand comments of online dialogues displayed on the websites of six British newspapers (three broadsheets and three tabloids) during a one-year timespan (December 2016-December 2017) were analysed qualitatively. Arguments on either discourse position were studied, hidden premises were uncovered. The results of the exploratory study reveal that there is a notable imbalance in the voicing of opinions: the promotion of the gender-neutral English pronoun is markedly underrepresented in the public (1.32%) while the set of arguments against its introduction is versatile. The findings of the analysis indicate that the voice of the people does not consider pronoun-binarism as a sign of exclusion or the marginalizing of gender-diverse people; however, the novel pronoun tends to excite shock and refusal in the public.

Judiciary plays an important role in interpretation of laws, applying the law and adjudicating upon the controversial laws. In judicial parlance, justice requires that the judge should have no bias for or against any individual or an idea in making his judicial decision and that his mind should be perfectly free to act as the law demands. Whilst bias may take various forms, when it comes to the judiciary, bias, even on account of a particular gender, should have no place in it. Bias in any form is anathema to a judge. The terms such as “gender bias” or “gender bias and the courts” were unheard of but now it is heard in numerous ambits of the law where a disquieting picture emerged which shows that gender bias existed in most of ambits, operational  at times to the advantage of men and more often to the disadvantage of women or vice-versa. Gender bias is not any special treatment for women or for men that is called for, because such special treatment is not required. Instead, sensitivity is required to the ways in which unexamined attitudes about men and women which are framed, lead to the unintended result of biased decision-making. Once this sensitivity is accomplished, and is reinforced by inquisitiveness, analysis and liberation only then the judge would be able to achieve gender neutrality in administration of justice in Indian judicial system, which is vital for the ultimate achievement of justice in its highest and absolute form.
The present article concentrates upon the role of Indian judiciary played towards achieving the goal of gender protection against gender biased legislations and thus, seeking out justice and equality of all the genders. Landmark judgments delivered by the Indian judiciary bear testimony to the fact that the judges cannot be accused of being gender insensitive and doing injustice. the spotlight is on laws that need to be made gender neutral, not laws that favour one gender. Hence Indian judiciary have proved to be impartial by upholding the following judgments that they are taking baby steps to safeguard the interests of individuals as prescribed in the Constitution of India and ensure gender-just society.