Gender neutrality and language

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

Ann Evans said:
"How are we to express the gender-neutral pronoun?  I tell my classes
that it will be up to them to figure this one out, but I would like to
be a of a little more help to them than that.  Is it true that "they"
was once legitimately the gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun?
How else, other than rewriting sentences, can this issue be resolved.
One posting recently mentioned "yo" as a gender-neutral pronoun, but I
don't see that catching on.  Any other inventions lately?"

Most good styleguides give sensible advice on this. For instance, here
is a style guide from Jenny R Redfern of the Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute:
http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/genderfair.html
There are many similar guides in print and online.

I decided to write in gender neutral style in 1983 and after making a
conscious effort for about 3 months it stopped being an effort.  If
young people have grown up with the currently dominant gender neutral
style, they shouldn't have anything to change.

Inventing pronouns isn't the way to go. 

It's true that singular 'they' is very old and that objections to it
started with the rise of prescriptivism in the eighteenth century. In
the 21st century, only the strictest of mavens reject 'they' with
'everyone' and similar notionally plural expressions, even where 'they'
takes singular concord (this is Oxford English Dictionary THEY 2).
Singular 'they' is increasingly acceptable in most other contexts,
though there are still a lot of people who regard it as too informal
("Someone left their scarf behind" is more acceptable to more people
than "A student seems to have lost their scarf"). BUT.... Most sentences
can be pluralised ('Students must submit their essays....'). Definite
articles can be used rather than prononouns ("Someone is parked
illegally outside the office -- I saw the car arrive but didn't see who
got out."). Nouns can be repeated instead of pronouns.

So I reckon you can help your students on this one. As I said earlier, I
am just amazed this one has come back. It is very rare to find generic
'he' in a text published in countries such as the US, UK, Canada, New
Zealand or Australia since 1990. In essays at Leeds I find it used
mostly by students who have learnt English in countries such as Germany
or Poland.


Anthea
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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
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