Anthony Williams <anthony_w.geo@yahoo.com> writes:
I approve of the sentiment behind using "she" (there aren't enough women in technical roles), but I do find myself stumbling every time I read it.
Agreed. I realy dislike this usage.
The use of "she" implies the person in question is female. Though "he" technically also has the implication that the person is male, it is general usage that "he" is used as a stand in for "he or she". If we really want to be gender neutral, we should write "he or she", which is what we really mean. Sometimes this is abbreviated "s/he", but that's an ugly kludge. Better would be to rewrite the sentence to avoid the issue.
It's a difficult question with no good answers, so I'm happy to leave it up to experts. The style guide my publisher gave me says "choose 'he' or 'she" and stick with it throughout the document," so that's what I do. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com