Use gender-inclusive language when appropriate.
Avoid using language that apparently excludes women when you actually mean to include them. Use humanity or humankind instead of man or mankind. Do not use he or him or his to refer to a generic person. Instead, alternate male and female pronouns, use both pronouns together, or switch to a plural construction. (But do not use s/he, which is a non-word, or she/he, which is clumsy.) Please note that in some cases, you would be distorting the past by using gender-inclusive language. If you are writing about American voters in the 1830s, for instance, it would be misleading to write about men and women casting ballots, as only men could vote at the time (and, in most states, only white men).
Not Inclusive: In order to become a full member of the congregation, a Puritan had to tell about his conversion experience.
Inclusive: In order to become a full member of the congregation, a Puritan had to tell about his or her conversion experience.
Inclusive: In order to become full members of the congregation, Puritans had to tell about their conversion experiences.
Note: It is becoming increasingly accepted to use the plural they as a singular pronoun rather than using some combination of he and she. This construction takes a bit of getting used to, and many writers and editors still avoid it, but it has the virtue of avoiding a binary conception of gender–making it even more inclusive than the other options noted above, especially in contemporary contexts.
For more information about the singular “they,” see: Celeste Mora, “What Is the Singular They, and Why Should I Use It?,” Grammarly blog.
Writing Handbook for History & Humanities by David J. Voelker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
