The vast majority of programmers are male, so (ignoring that he can be used in a gender neutral way) it's natural to use he in such a situation. I'm not saying it's right or wrong -- I'm not sure what influence using gender-specific pronouns has. Although I will say that if someone used she when discussing a field that is dominated by women, like veterinary science, as a man I wouldn't feel excluded or put off from exploring the field if I had an interest in it. It's also interesting to note that the same furor over gender inequality in subjects like computer science isn't replicated when the shoe is on the other foot.
I think there is a tendency in western culture at the moment to confuse factual differences in behaviour between men and women with ethical issues about equal opportunity. Equal opportunity doesn't necessarily result in a 50/50 gender split in all fields. Christina H. Sommers puts it better than I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-6usiN4uoA
Also, I think this was kind of apropos. Seems like the English language isn't using the right levels of abstractions. There should be a true gender neutral pronoun, one that should be used when the gender specificity isn't relevant and should be hidden away behind the pronoun's abstraction. Its just not something we're familiar with, and that's really the only problem. Its hard to force language on people, when everyone learns language effortlessly as they grow up, nobody is used to putting effort in how they talk.
I don't think that's the only problem here. Consider this story: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/03/student-facing-50-...
These sorts of situations are a direct result of the battle "to force language on people", and they are having a big effect on our society. Sethi paid a high cost for a single tweet that wasn't intended to be malicious in any way. And people who read such stories note this, and as a result feel like they must tread on eggshells, because, even though they aren't racist or sexist or any other ist, one small slip up may result in their entire education or career being put at risk.
A populous that is scared to say anything is much easier to control. And I think the powerful are going to get what they want with this. In a couple of decades, I think free speech will be a distant memory, and people like yourself will be questioning the future you helped bring about.
: that person
No, grammatically, "he" always has masculine gender [0]; its historically-accepted (though increasingly-less-so) semantics include use in reference to a person of unspecified (socially-ascribed) gender (classically, use of personal programs in English maps best to socially-ascribed gender, which has not taken gender identity much into account -- recently, there's been a move to align socially-ascribed gender with gender identity, but pronoun use basically follows the former which just happens to have a growing norm of also aligning with the latter.)
> "They" is plural
"They" is grammatically plural and gender-neutral, but has a very long history of accepted use with semantics of referring to an individual of unspecified (socially-ascribed) gender. This acceptance was somewhat reduced by the Victorian fad of Latin-inspired prescriptivism in English, but this reductions is among those of that fads effects that have been fading over recent decades.
[0] Note that grammatic gender is a distinct concept from either socially ascribed gender of a person, gender identity of a person, or biological sex of a person.
Given an HN reader took the trouble to email me their thanks for my comment, I respectfully disagree. To do this, they had find my email address by following some of my other comments, linking to a website, following through to github... The email they wrote was articulate. They put in real effort to say "thanks".
> "he" is a gender neutral pronoun when referring to a person of unspecified gender (as in other languages).
In some dictionaries, yes. A possible counter-argument to this is that the tradition of that usage comes from cultures with significant inbuilt misogyny.
> "They" is plural.
Sometimes. - https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/they - http://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbin...
> "Ve" is not a word.
I can read it, write it, say it and find other like usages in numerous places. To me, that reflects most of the necessary facets of "a word". - https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com - http://vevemvir.tumblr.com - http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Cultural/Art/eganrev.html - http://www.dictionary.com/browse/etymology - http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Made-Up-Word
> "S/he" is awkward and unnecessary
Agreed. I dislike this form. A similar option is to alternate use of "he" and "she". This form is common, and probably the simplest. I wish I'd suggested it.
> we can argue that it is misandrous because you're capitalizing the "S" and prioritizing "She" over "he"
That was you, not me.
Singular "they" is a widely recognised usage.
And the idea that "he" is gender neutral always seemed to me like a post-rationalisation for people's androcentrism than any kind of well founded rule.
To defend my point a little: I invited them to consider their use of language, not tell them how to live their life.
I can tell you how I came to this view: I read around through philosophy, pop-psychology/self-help, nlp, linguistics, religion and science-fiction; I spoke with feminists; I spoke with trans-folk and their admirers; I looked at my assumptions as a younger person and found them wrong.
