After writing my last post, I noticed that I made a mistake I often accuse others of. Language -- like biological evolution, law, and economics -- is one of those topics where most people think they can competently comment on it, but only a few actually can. That's just what I did yesterday.
Instead of dumping my personal knee-jerk comments, biases, and half-memorized rules into this threads, I should have consulted my
Chicago Manual of Style. This manual, unlike myself, actually
has reliable grammatical authority. It has this to say on gender-neutrality:
[b]5-204[/b] [i]Gender Bias[/i]. Consider the issue of gender-neutral language. On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun ([i]he[/i] in reference to no one in particular). On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using [i]he/she[/i] or [i]s/he[/i], for example) or to use [i]they [/i]as a kind of singular pronoun. Either way, credibility is lost with some readers. What is wanted, in short, is a kind of invisible gender neutrality. There are many ways to achieve such language, but it takes thought and often some hard work. See 5.43, 5.51, 5.78.
[b]5-43[/b] [i]Antecedents of different genders [/i] [...] A special problem arises when the antecedent nouns are singular or of differing genders or an indeterminate gender, and are joined by [i]or[/i] or [i]nor[/i]. Using [i]he, his[/i], and [i]him[/i]as common-sex pronouns is now widely considered sexist, if not misleading, and picking the gender of the nearest antecedent may be equally misleading (e.g., [i]some boy or girl left her lunch box on the bus[/i]). A good writer can usually recast the sntence to eliminate the need for any personal pronoun at all. ([i]some child left a lunch box on the bus[/i].) See 5.49, 5.51, 5.204
[b]5-51[/b] [i]Special uses[/i] Some personal pronouns have special uses. (1) [i]He, him[/i] and [i]his[/i] have traditionally been used as pronouns of intermediate gender equally applicable to a male or female person. Because these pronouns are also masculine-specific, they have long been regarded as sexist when used generically, and their indeterminate-gender use is declining. (See 5.43 and 5.204) [...]
[b]5-78[/b] [i]Article as a pronoun substitute[/i] An article may sometimes substitute for a pronoun. For example, the blanks in [i]a patient who develops the described rash on ___ hands should inform ___ doctor[/i] may be filld with the pronoun phrase [i]his or her[/i] or the article [i]the[/i]. See also 5.204
[b]5-49[/b] [i]Expressing Gender[/i] Only the third-person pronouns directly express gender. In nominative and objective cases, the pronoun takes the antecedent noun's gender. ([i]the president is not in her office today; she's at a seminar[/i]). In the possessive case, the pronoun always takes the gender of the possessor, not of the person or thing possessed ([i]The woman loves her husband[/i]) ([i]Thomas is visiting his sister[/i]) ([i]the puppy disobeyed its owner[/i]). Some nouns may acquire gender through personification, a nofigure of speech that refers to a nonliving thing as if it were a person. Pronouns enhance personification when a feminine or masculine pronoun is used as if the antecedent represented a female or male person (as was traditionally done, for example, when a ship or other vessel ws referred to as [i]she[/i] or [i]her[/i].
Source: University of Chicago Press:
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. University of Chicago Press (2003).
So in other words, they have no easy answer either, but tend to discourage the use of `he' as gender-generic. Essentially, their advice in your matter comes down to this: `Be a good writer and eliminate the need for any personal pronoun at all'.
I use "they" all the time for this purpose.
