**TL;DR – Communicating with gender neutral terms ensures clarity and inclusivity. Most terms are so pointlessly written and spoken with masculine terms.** It seems almost natural that most men will write and speak on general terms about people and resort to using he/him pronouns while it’s vice versa for women and non-binary individuals. The US DOI says that, “All *men* are created equal,” and it’s lame for that. The disconnect is clear to us now. Despite clarity’s sake, speaking so specific in these terms feels exclusionary before anything nowadays. Even *man-made* takes form with ‘man’ while semantics say that it has nothing to do with men. Man as a Latin root means ‘hand’ which is ungendered and universal in itself, but it maintains itself as the opposite. There’s just no reason not to use any alternatives like person, human, people, one, humanity, the human race, humankind, individual. I’m not saying to change the English language, though it would be a fun experiment in itself. Professions are mostly communicated as masculine too – *postman*, *councilman*, *cameraman*. Why have we not achieved the step of normalizing *postal person*, *council member*, and *camera operator*? Lipika Sahu finished off the source below with, “There is no harm in using the option [he/him, she/her]. Just that when this pops up quite many times, it breaks the flow of the story [in regards to writing].” This extends to speaking as well. https://writingcooperative.com/all-men-are-created-equal-what-about-women-a0ac2efd957

**TL;DR- I definitely agree with this; it may seem like a small thing but language has such a big impact on society that communicating things with gender neutral terms would absolutely help to bolster inclusivity and clarity.** For example, if children were to grow up in a world where their teachers, parents, etc. said things like 'police officer' instead of 'policeman'- it would lead to them carrying on gender-inclusive language into the next generation, as they would be accustomed to it. In this example, children would not be conditioned (whether intentionally or unconsciously) to think that careers are gendered. It's a small yet impactful habit we definitely need to bring into everyday language. Many people at the moment, such as elder generations (because of the times in which they grew up, where most doctors were men for example) may accidentally assume a 'he' when a 'she' or 'they' is actually being referred to, or vice versa (e.g. "I went to see the doctor yesterday" "What did he say?" "*She* said there's nothing to worry about"). This is not necessarily anybody's fault because it's due to habit and conditioning, yet if we're going to phase this out, gender inclusive language ought to be used whenever possible. There is also the interesting way in which many people make women the afterthought in their communication. For example when people say "he...or she" (with hesitation, and then emphasis on the "OR SHE") during lectures, speeches, interviews, etc. (as noted by James Acaster during a stand up performance: https://youtu.be/i_xVAqJ-NY0). But by making little alterations (such as simply saying 'they' instead of 'he...or she'), we can guarantee inclusivity for all genders. in terms of the way we use language.

**TL:DR – Although using gender neutral terms encourages individuals and enables the visibility of such an important issue, it’s unrealistic to expect that *most* things be communicated this way. Moreover, there is no guarantee that if this were implemented this way it would *guarantee* exclusivity and clarity.** While it's been noted that linguistic efforts have raised awareness where gender neutral terms are concerned (specifically the social impact), simply changing our language does not guarantee societal change, more specifically in this case, inclusivity and clarity. Maria Almeida (2017), Head of Editorial at unbabel.com, provides evidence of just how challenging this can be particularly within the context of the French language. According to her, on November 2017, France’s not so “gender-neutral” language was called into question in a heated debate that involved the release of a school textbook which promoted “a gender-neutral version of French.” Apparently, this was extremely upsetting to traditionalists. What’s more, the Académie Française – France’s ultimate authority on the French language, issued a furious statement immediately after the book’s release. Curiously, the document containing this statement was signed by 40 of the academy’s members, only 5 of whom were women. In it they described gender-neutral text as an “aberration” that puts the French language in “mortal danger.” They concluded by saying that “inclusive writing” has no place in the country’s grammar books. And while this might seem quite harsh it needs to be observed that changing the structure of a language is extremely difficult. What's more, Almeida further informs us that reinforcing a binary system and even looking at personalizing languages and messages are not actual "solutions" to this issue either. Furthermore, she enlightens us that despite these good intentions, it would just result in a lot of complexity, specifically in the case of the French language. Also, it should be noted that there are some languages that have kept their neutral grammatical gender, e.g. Finland. Does this then mean that in Finland there is more gender equality than in France. Is this specifically related to language? Does the gendered nature of language really promote sexism? The answer to all of these questions are no. The implementation of of gender-neutral terms is not the only possible "solution." Dr. Betty Birner, professor of linguistics and cognitive science at Northern Illinois University confirms this when she points out the following: the issue of gender-neutral terms is not just about language but it involves culture too. Most importantly, “…it’s not necessarily true that a gender marked language will promote sexism because there are many other factors involved.” So ultimately, in my opinion, we should not push for *most* things to be communicated in gender-neutral terms, particularly with languages that are heavily gender marked. It’s just not practical. Should Language Be More Gender-Neutral? https://unbabel.com/blog/should-language-be-more-gender-neutral/ [accessed February 28, 2021].