Sweden has introduced a new, gender neutral pronoun into its language. The new pronoun, “hen”, was included in the country’s National Encyclopedia earlier this year.

It is intended to be used instead of the Swedish words for ‘he’ and ‘she’ (“han” and “hon”).

The move comes after pressure from “gender-neutral activists” who are campaigning for the removal of all traditional gender roles on the grounds that gender roles are the creations of society – or ‘social constructs’ – with no real basis in nature. 

The entry in the encyclopedia defines ‘hen’ as a “proposed gender-neutral personal pronoun instead of he [han in Swedish] and she [hon].” 

The move came after heated debate in Swedish newspaper columns and TV studios and on parenting blogs and feminist websites. It was sparked by the publication of Sweden’s first ever gender-neutral children’s book, Kivi och Monsterhund, according to a report in US website Slate.

It is the latest in a series of developments in a campaign to make Sweden “gender neutral”.

Activists are lobbying for parents to be able to choose any name for their children (there are currently just 170 legally recognized unisex names in Sweden), Slate reports. It would mean that names would not be tied to gender, so it would be acceptable for parents to, say, name a girl Jack or a boy Lisa.

A Swedish children’s clothes company has removed the “boys” and “girls” sections in its stores, and the idea of dressing children in a gender-neutral manner has been widely discussed on parenting blogs. This Swedish toy catalog recently decided to switch things around, showing a boy in a Spider-Man costume pushing a pink pram, while a girl in denim rides a yellow tractor.

Social Democrat politicians have proposed installing gender-neutral toilets so that members of the public will not be compelled to categorise themselves as either ladies or gents. Several preschools have banished references to pupils’ genders, instead referring to children by their first names or as “buddies.”

The move to introduce the word “hen” has drawn some criticism, according to Slate. 

In a recent interview for Vice magazine, Jan Guillou, one of Sweden’s most well-known authors, referred to proponents of hen as “feminist activists who want to destroy our language.” 

Some critics believe the move towards gender neutrality can be psychologically and socially damaging, especially for children. 

Elise Claeson, a columnist and a former equality expert at the Swedish Confederation of Professions, has said that young children can become confused by the suggestion that there is a third, “in-between” gender at a time when their brains and bodies are developing. Adults should not interrupt children’s discovery of their gender and sexuality, she argues. 

She told the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, that “gender ideologues” have managed to change the curriculum to establish that schools should actively counter gender roles.

However, the Swedish school system has wholeheartedly embraced the agenda. 

Last autumn, a major government-sponsored conference discussed how to avoid “traditional gender patterns” in schools. 

At one Stockholm kindergarten school, everything from the decoration to the books and toys is carefully selected to promote a gender-equal perspective and to avoid traditional presentations of gender and parenting roles. 

The teachers try to expose the pupils to as few “gendered expressions” as possible. At Christmastime, the Egalia staff rewrote a traditional song as “hen bakes cakes all day long.”

When pupils play house, they are encouraged to include “mommy, daddy, child” in their imaginary families, as well as “daddy, daddy, child”; “mommy, mommy, child”; “daddy, daddy, sister, aunty, child”; or any other modern combination.