Non Gender Specific Pronouns

Genders

In the past, when not referring to a specific person, people often used the pronoun he to refer to anyone. For example, a book describing different jobs may include an example such as:

The example uses he when referring to all trainee doctors even though many will no doubt be female. The argument used at the time was that he can be used both as a gender specific pronoun for males as well as a non-gender specific pronoun; the same book would no doubt refer to nurses as she because in the majority of cases they were female. The argument that a pronoun can be both gender specific and non gender specific is thus void.

To get around this, writers would often use both pronouns, e.g.:

This is, at best, inelegant. To get around this more commonly these days is the use of they, their, themself as neutral pronouns:

Themself

The pronoun themself is a not so recent introduction in colloquial English as a singular pronoun to avoid the use of himself or herself, when the sex of the person is unspecified.

Check the Chambers Dictionary, first edition 1998 (reprinted 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002).

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