History was made as we entered the third wave of feminism in 2014. In the past year, women stood up for their rights once again, challenged stereotypes, and started a gender-neutral feminist revolution. Sweden is the pioneer when it comes to feminism. The Swedish took some serious decision in their country when in 2014 officially introduced a gender-neutral pronoun “Hen”. This new pronoun included in the glossary of the Swedish Academy, Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL), stands in for han (“he”) or hon (“she”), which refers to individuals belonging to a specified sex.
The term was first mentioned by Swedish linguists in the mid-1960’s and again in 1994 when linguist Hans Karlgren suggested hen because its usage enables people to speak of a person without specifying their gender. But not all are as keen to use it. The Sweden author, Jan Guillou in an interview with Vice magazine, referred to proponents of hen as “feminist activists who want to destroy our language.” Is it really destroying a language or giving room for other to feel at ease with it? Hen goes farther than gender equality because it seeks gender neutrality.
The implementation of the pronoun started in 2012 at nurseries, schools and newspapers. Now, this gender-neutrality trend is taking over other countries with their own unofficial gender-neutral pronouns. In Puerto Rico, the unofficial gender-neutral article would be lxs, which is being embraced mostly by college students. The usage of the X letter replaces the vocals A and O, which in Spanish define a word as female or male. For example, ellxs is a pronoun used for an all-inclusive regardless of gender and sexual orientation. Sweden should serve as a role model for this huge accomplishment by providing an all-inclusive/neutral environment for all.