The pronouns that we use are important because language shapes the way we conceptualise ourselves and the world around us, and the prevailing societal ethos.
It used to be the case that in all cases of writing when referring to an individual using a pronoun ''He'' would be used without thinking and without pause. Then came an era of increased sensitivity whereby people started to understand that such a starting point may at times seem presumptuous and discriminatory; after all, self-identified females do form half the population. Indeed, why should it be the case that when a person is writing and the person is anonymous, that the male gender be the assumed default? Hence the introduction of the new ''He/She'' (or ''He or she'') in writing and parlance.
However, the replacement of ''He'' with ''He/She'' even if we assume this general trend has been replaced, introduces other problems. For instance, it reinforces existing gender labels and gender binaries to the exclusion of people who don't identify comfortably on this binary. Perhaps its time to go further and mandate that we replace ''He/She'' with ''One'' (a truly gender-neutral pronoun)? So instead of a sentence looking like
''A person who steals a cookie is a fool. He/She would have broken the law''... it would instead look like this ''A person who steals a cookie is a fool. One would have broken the law.''
Since the use of the word ''One'' in certain sentence constructions seems a bit awkward, perhaps a new pronoun (a truly gender-neutral one not restricted to the He/She binary) ought to be introduced. Suggestions are welcome.
Two issues to consider and discuss.
1. Is the use of the word ''He'' in writing and parlance when referring to a non-specific person discriminatory and problematic?
2. Is the use of the word He/She in its place SUFFICIENT to get rid of the problematic issues? Or does it create more problems than it solves (for instance reinforcing gender binaries)?
3. Should a new pronoun be introduced?
In my view the use of the word ''He'' as a default pronoun when referring to a non-specific person is problematic; its discriminatory beyond question when at least half of the population does not identify as a He. The word He/She though is an extension of a problem in that it reinforces a restrictive, discriminatory, gender binary to the exclusion of people uncomfortable with this binary. Therefore, I would suggest that a new pronoun needs to be introduced to cover these situations.
Some sources to consider in the discussion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-sp ... l_pronouns
https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/
https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com
https://apps.carleton.edu/student/orgs/saga/pronouns/
