What are Your Pronouns? Examining Gender Pronoun Usage on Twitter

TL;DR

This study analyzes gender pronoun usage on Twitter, revealing trends, user behaviors, and social influences, providing insights into gender identity expression and implications for online inclusion and fairness.

Contribution

First large-scale empirical analysis of gender pronoun usage on social media, identifying usage patterns, user distinctions, and social network effects.

Findings

Pronoun declaration is increasing on Twitter.

Most users use she series pronouns, followed by he series.

Non-binary pronouns are used by a significant minority.

Abstract

Stating your gender pronouns, along with your name, is becoming the new norm of self-introductions at school, at the workplace, and online. The increasing prevalence and awareness of nonconforming gender identities put discussions of developing gender-inclusive language at the forefront. This work presents the first empirical research on gender pronoun usage on large-scale social media. Leveraging a Twitter dataset of over 2 billion tweets collected continuously over two years, we find that the public declaration of gender pronouns is on the rise, with most people declaring as using she series pronouns, followed by he series pronouns, and a smaller but considerable amount of non-binary pronouns. From analyzing Twitter posts and sharing activities, we can discern users who use gender pronouns from those who do not and also distinguish users of various gender identities. We further illustrate the relationship between explicit forms of social network exposure to gender pronouns and their eventual gender pronoun adoption. This work carries crucial implications for gender-identity studies and initiates new research directions in gender-related fairness and inclusion, as well as support against online harassment and discrimination on social media.