Mental gender representation elicited by Dutch gender-neutral pronouns for generic reference

Purpose: In many languages, masculine forms are used as the default for generic reference (i.e., reference to a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant). Experimental research has shown that masculine forms can lead to male bias (e.g., Redl, 2021) and that gender-inclusive language can attenuate such bias (e.g., Lindqvist et al., 2019). This study investigates whether Dutch gender-neutral pronouns can mitigate a male bias and lead to more gender-inclusive mental representations. Method: Participants from Belgium and the Netherlands were asked to read employee guidelines. They were randomly assigned to one of five text versions, which were identical except for the generic referential strategy used: gender-neutral die-hen-hun, gender-neutral hen-hen-hun, gender-neutral die-die-diens, masculine hij-hem-zijn or plural ze-hen-hun. After reading, the participants were asked to imagine an employee and write a short text about them. The gender the participants assigned to their imagined employee by the use of names and pronouns was taken as the outcome variable. Results: The data suggest a male bias among the Dutch participants: they are more likely to imagine a male employee than a female employee regardless of the referential strategy they read. Among the Belgian participants, the male bias is less pronounced, and gender-neutral pronouns lead to more balanced gender representations. Participants’ gender also influenced the results, with men more likely to write about male employees and women showing more balanced representations. Conclusions: Gender-neutral pronouns have the potential to reduce male bias in mental gender representations, but their effectiveness varies by country and participant gender.