BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Organizational Communication
This article is part of the Research TopicRethinking How Firms Communicate with SocietyView all 5 articles
The Silence of Pronouns: A Critical Signaling Theory Approach to Environmental Organizations' Online Inclusion of Linguistic Gender Markers
Provisionally accepted
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, United States
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Websites are critical platforms for environmental organizations to communicate their values and commitments to justice. This study examines how organizations in Buffalo, NY, signal gender inclusivity by using pronouns on their websites, using Critical Signaling Theory as a framework. Our analysis of organizational websites found that only 6.9% included pronouns in staff bios, and when present, their usage was inconsistent. This reflects a broader pattern of superficial diversity efforts, mirroring previous findings on racial representation. Our findings highlight the need for environmental organizations to not only approach environmental justice intersectionally but to signal a welcoming and inclusive space through linguistic cues like staff and board member personal pronouns. We argue that doing so is especially important in countries where leadership has been explicitly exclusionary to transgender and gender nonconforming people.The absence of pronouns and explicit references to racial and gender justice suggests a gap between stated commitments and digital communication practices. By consistently incorporating pronouns and addressing justice more directly, environmental organizations can strengthen their credibility, align their public messaging with their values, and foster greater inclusivity within social and ecological justice movements.
Keywords: critical signaling theory, Environmental Communication, environmental justice, LGBTQ+, pronouns, website review
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Lowman and Miles. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Monica Lynn Miles
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