Preferred gender pronouns have been used in the New Year Honours list for what is believed to be the first time.
Monica Fitzpatrick, deputy principal of the Equality and LGBT Policy Unit in the Northern Ireland Executive, has been listed with “she/her” next to her name on the list.
There is a growing trend of specifying preferred gender pronouns, with some people preferring to be addressed as they or them, while others prefer gender-specific pronouns.
The Cabinet Office said the New year’s Honours List was the most ethnically diverse to date, but that there is “more work to be done” to ensure women are properly represented among the highest awards.
While 47.9 per cent of recipients were women, that figure fell to just 35.9 per cent when it came to honours at CBE level and above.
‘Progress can be slow’ on equality of honours
In some previous years, more than 50 per cent of honours have gone to women.
However Alison Bennett, head of honours in the Cabinet Office’s Honours and Appointments Secretariat, admitted progress could be “slow”.
She said the ambition is that senior honours should be “looking more like 50/50” in terms of distribution between men and women.
She added: “There’s certainly more work to be done. I don’t think progress has stalled but progress can be slow.
“We would like to ramp up the pace and make sure that we can do everything we can to make sure the right people are coming through into the system, are being nominated in the first place and are coming through the committee for recognition.”
In the most recent list, 15.1 per cent of people were from an ethnic minority background – slightly higher than the previous record set last June.
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