A women's professional-development group at Georgia State University provided 10 pronoun options—including male pronouns—for students to select on their membership application.
WomenLead, an organization that provides professional-development classes to female students, allows applicants to select masculine "he/him" pronouns and plural "they/them" pronouns in addition to the feminine "she/her." But students also have a plethora of other options: "Co, co, cos, cos, coself," "En, en, ens, ens, enself," "Ey, em, eir, eirs, emself," "Xie, hir, hir, hirs, hirself," "Yo, yo, yos, yos, yoself," "Ze, zir, zir, zirs, zirself," and "Ve, vis, ver, ver, verself."
Applicants who find none of those options fitting are invited to write in their preferred pronouns.
Georgia State started WomenLead 2015 to help prepare female students for leadership positions in business, politics, science, and other professional spheres in which, the organization says, women are "severely underrepresented." Despite allowing non-female students to apply, the group seeks to narrow the "pervasive gender equity gap" through "empowering young women to aim for and achieve leadership roles."
WomenLead manager Maria Tortolero did not reply to the Washington Free Beacon's request for comment in time for publication.
In recent years, administrators at colleges across the United States have implemented various policies and practices to be more inclusive to 64-plus genders. In some cases, these efforts have negatively affected groups for women. Harvard's last sorority disbanded in 2018 after the university banned students affiliated with single-sex organizations from participating in campus leadership positions.
Last month, the University of California system added "nonbinary" as a gender-identification option on official school documents and allowed students to give a "lived name, or preferred name" alongside their legal name. Harvard's government school encourages students to write their preferred pronouns on name tags on orientation day. And in February, New York University gave students the option to provide professors with their preferred pronouns in an online class roster system.