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Gender-Neutral Language
The English language has gendered pronouns in the third person—that is, “he” and “she.” Once upon a time, the masculine pronouns “he,” “him,” “his,” and “himself” were consideredacceptable for use as gender-neutral pronouns in situations where the sex of the person was not known:
Everyone should lock his office door at the end of the day.The successful executive has confidence, and he can communicate effectively with everyone.A worker is only as good as his tools.Modern man no longer coddles himself during pregnancy. He continues to work often until days before he goes into labor and delivers.
That last example calls into question the neutrality of the pronoun, doesn’t it? Today, the masculine pronoun is no longer considered gender-neutral, which leaves professionalwriters with some choices to make when they want to be inclusive. No one has yet developed a widely accepted gender-neutral English pronoun, so we’re left with a few differentoptions when we want to write without specifying the gender of the person we’re talking about.
USE “HE OR SHE” OR “SHE OR HE”The phrases “he or she” or “she or he” can work, especially if used sparingly. This construction can be clunky when it’s used in situations where the pronoun appears more than once ina single sentence:
Everyone should lock his or her office door at the end of the day.
But not:
Everyone should lock his or her office door at the end of the day and ensure that he or she turns off the copier and printer.
USE S/HE AND HIS/HERThis option is typographically more efficient than using “she or he,” but it reads unnaturally:
The successful executive has confidence, and s/he can communicate effectively with everyone.
ALTERNATE USING “HE” AND “SHE”If you have a fairly long text that features a lot of pronouns, you can alternate using “he” and “she,” showing equal favor to both. That’s the primary approach chosen for this book.However, it won’t work if you have a string of sentences that require the pronoun; the alternation will seem bizarre and confusing.
USE “THEY” AND “THEIR” AS SINGULAR PRONOUNSMany writers use “they” and “their” to refer back to a singular subject, when the gender of that subject is unknown:
Everyone should lock their office door at the end of the day.Somebody got their handprints all over the bathroom mirror; they ought to go back and clean it off.
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