Unlike many other languages, English is a relatively gender-free language. As we’ve discussed previously, students of the English language – unlike those who are studying German or French, for example – don’t have to remember that chairs are feminine and telephones are masculine, or that there are two ways of saying “yours” depending on whether “you” refers to a man or a woman. We do sometimes assign genders to certain inanimate objects (such as calling a boat or ship “she”), but in general don’t worry about whether something is classified as male, female, or neuter.

Of course, when it comes to people rather than pool tables or pencils, the issue of gender plays a larger role. Traditionally (referring both to the evolution of English and of the societies in which English is spoken), the masculine terms have been used to designate everyone involved, when speaking generally rather than specifically. “All men are created equal …” is now taken to ideally mean “all people” and references to “mankind” assume that the reader will mentally substitute “humans.” There’s a long-standing argument going on about the necessity and value of using gender-neutral terms such as “people” and “humans” rather than male-oriented ones, but that’s a discussion that’s far outside the realm of this vocabulary blog. In addition, some phrases are probably too entrenched in tradition to change by now – it’s unlikely someone will say “Person overboard!” in a crisis on a cruise ship. However, as the years go by English will continue to adapt to society; it would be interesting to jump ahead 100 years and see what changes have occurred.

One of the ways to avoid the gender conflict is to use neutral terminology like “one” or “they” (which can be used in both the singular and plural), and say things like “A student needs to know that they have grading options” rather than “A student needs to know that he has grading options.” Another is to adopt one of the newer sets of terms that have been created specifically to avoid gender designations, as shown below:

zie or ze or sie (pronounced zee) instead of she or he
hir (pronounced heer) instead of his or her
hirs (pronounced heers) instead of hers or his
hirself (pronounced heerself) instead of himself or herself

In the Middle Ages the word “fellow” meant “man” only; during the 1600s the term began being used a way to identify someone who was part of a particular society or organization, as in a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Since at that time only men were part of such societies, the word still had the overtone of “male person,” but today both men and women can be fellows. Fellow is also neutral when you’re using it as an adjective to mean “part of the same group” (my fellow employees doesn’t imply that all your co-workers are male).

Whether you choose to change your terminology or not, it’s interesting to think about the different ways to say things in the English language.