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Avoiding sexism in your writing

In the past, when people referred to a member of a group containing both men and women (or boys and girls), they used the pronouns he/him/his:

A good doctor listens carefully to his patients.

Anyone who wants to join should give his name to the secretary.

Nowadays, many people feel that this usage is unfair to women. If you want to avoid the danger of seeming sexist, you can use one of the following alternatives.

Use They/Them/Their to refer back to an indefinite pronoun (anyone, somebody etc):

Anyone who wants to join should give their name to the secretary.

Some people object to this usage in formal styles, insisting that they (plural) does not agree in number with anyone (singular). This usage is nevertheless very common.

Make all the forms plural:

Good doctors listen carefully to their patients.

Those who want to join should give their name to the secretary.

Design the sentence in such a way that a personal pronoun is not needed. For example, instead of saying ‘If anyone wants to go now, he may do so’, just say ‘Anyone who wants to go now may do so.’

Use he or she, his or her, etc:

A good doctor listens carefully to his or her patients.

This alternative is found in formal writing, and so is the use of he/she, his/her, s/he, etc.

However, they are generally felt to produce awkward and unnatural sentences, especially when they are repeated, as in:

If a doctor listens to his or her patients, he or she will be in a better position to help them.