Swedish school ordered to pay student £12,000 after teacher refused to use gender-neutral pronoun

Swedish school is ordered to pay student £12,000 compensation after teacher refused to use gender-neutral pronoun for them

  • A school in central Sweden has paid a non-binary student £12,000 in damages
  • A teacher refused to refer to the student using the gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’
  • The wrong pronoun was used to refer to the pupil for at least one full school term
  • The Equality Ombudsman ruled the student had been subject to discrimination 


A Swedish school has been ordered to pay a non-binary student £12,000 in compensation after a teacher refused to refer to them using gender-neutral pronouns.

The teacher said she could not use the gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’, prompting the student’s guardians to tell the headteacher about the teacher’s refusal and the pupil’s gender identity.

Despite the headteacher of the school in central Sweden promising to speak with the teacher, the student was referred to with the wrong pronouns for at least one school term, The Local reported.

‘Hen’ is Sweden’s gender-neutral pronoun, replacing ‘hon’, meaning she, or ‘han’, meaning he. The English equivalent is using the single-person pronoun ‘they’.

A Swedish school was ordered to pay a non-binary student £12,000 damages after the teacher refused to use the Swedish gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’ (stock image)

After the Equality Ombudsman (DO) investigated the case, it was ruled that the student was subject to discrimination and the school were ordered to pay £12,000 (150,000 Swedish kronor) in damages, local media said.

DO’s Isabelle Arsova said in a statement that students should feel ‘safe and respected’ in schools, adding that teachers should ‘reflect these values’.

She said: ‘A situation where a teacher consciously refuses to use the pronouns a student identifies with represents a serious form of harassment and something a headteacher must put a stop to.’

The educational provider, the organisation in charge of running the school, told the DO that the student was discriminated against and said it went on for too long.

The teacher who repeatedly refused to use gender-neutral pronouns was later fired by the school, according to reports. 

In Sweden, the educational provider is legally responsible for discriminatory actions carried out by staff or representatives of the school.

'Hen' is Sweden's gender-neutral pronoun, replacing 'hon', meaning she, or 'han', meaning he. The English equivalent is using the single-person pronoun 'they' (stock image)

‘Hen’ is Sweden’s gender-neutral pronoun, replacing ‘hon’, meaning she, or ‘han’, meaning he. The English equivalent is using the single-person pronoun ‘they’ (stock image) 

Under Swedish rules, the provider has to investigate any incidences of alleged harassment as soon as possible and take appropriate steps to stop any reoccurrences.

Sweden added the gender neutral pronoun ‘hen’ to its dictionary in 2015. The pronoun is used to refer to a person without revealing their gender, for example if they are non-binary, transgender, or their gender is unknown. 

Earlier this month, it was confirmed the pronoun ‘hen’ will officially enter dictionaries in Norway. The gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’ is the same in Swedish and Norwegian.

The Language Council of Norway confirmed that the term, which is an alternative to the feminine pronoun ‘hun’ and the masculine pronoun ‘han’, would likely enter official Norwegian language within a year.