‘Ze/Zir’: Goldman Sachs Encourages Employees to Use Gender-Neutral Pronouns
Goldman Sachs is distributing a pamphlet to employees that was drafted by the investment bank’s internal LGBT group and encourages staff to use recently developed gender-neutral pronouns, including “Ze” and “Zir.”
The employee guide, distributed by the firm’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender network, directs employees to “proactively share [their] pronouns to foster an environment of respect and awareness.” The hand out provides examples of “the most common” gender-neutral pronouns but leaves open the possibility that some employees may ask to be referred to by pronouns that are not included on the list or may ask that their coworkers refrain from referring to them using pronouns entirely.
“Ze went to the store. I spoke with zir/zem. The apple was zirs/zes,” reads one example of the employee guide, which was first publicized by the student-run Stanford University newspaper, the Stanford Review.
The guide also instructs employees to “replace gendered language with gender-inclusive language wherever possible (e.g. ‘hi all vs. ‘hi guys’).”
On the backside of the instructional handout, Goldman Sachs offered eight “Tips for Being An Inclusive Ally” that include suggestions such as “Be Proactive, ” “No Assumptions,” and “Handling Mistakes.”
“Recognize that some people go by multiple sets of pronouns, while others may choose to only use their name and eschew pronouns completely,” Goldman Sachs tells employees under the tip on “Variations.”
This is what both sides of the sign looks like below which is being distributed through the firm’s “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network” pic.twitter.com/juWUcYaxaF
— The Stanford Review (@StanfordReview) April 10, 2023
It’s unclear how Goldman enforces its pronoun guidelines and whether employees who refuse to abide by it are punished. National Review has reached out to the firm for clarification.
The prestigious financial firm made headlines in January 2020 when Solomon announced that Goldman Sachs would no longer help take businesses public to be listed on stock exchanges if the company’s board was only comprised of white men.
“Starting on July 1 in the U.S. and Europe, we’re not going to take a company public unless there’s at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women,” Solomon told CNBC at the time. “We might miss some business, but in the long run, this I think is the best advice for companies that want to drive premium returns for their shareholders over time.”
However, Goldman Sach was highly selective in which jurisdictions it chose to enforce such standards. While the bank still boasts of its diversity requirement, the massive caveat attached to the demand is that it only applies to companies in America or Western Europe.
When it came to the bank’s extensive international ties in “Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East, where all-male boards are more common,” a Wall Street Journal editorial asserted, Goldman Sachs remains non-committal.
“Goldman says that it will consider extending the policy to other regions over time after consulting with clients, and as diversity awareness increases,” the January 2020 article noted. As of April 2023, the corporation has yet to revise its policy.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate and Goldman Sachs alum, dedicated much of his 2021 bestseller, Woke Inc., to the bank’s hypocrisy in ignoring corruption scandals involving business partners in Malaysia while catering to woke virtues.
“Large banks like Goldman Sachs are particularly adept at playing the woke capitalist game,” Ramaswamy writes.
