I think the way grammatical gender and gender inequality relate is an interesting topic, but this debate will get off-topic and technical quite quickly. Nevertheless, I gave it a stab in my inline replies below, along with hopefully a more useful observation.
On 12/28/11 8:08 PM, Theo10011 wrote:
Incidentally, the person credited for popularizing for this male-centric usage, is Anne fisher[1], an 18th-century British schoolmistress, and one of the first woman to write an English grammar book. [...]
This is not entirely relevant (though quite fascinating). There is no single definition of feminism, and its meaning is especially dependent on cultural mores of their time and place. You might call Boudica, Elizabeth I, or Abigail Adams feminists, but that doesn't mean they necessarily even supported most of what we'd call women's rights. I see where you are coming from, but I could just as easily point out that Martin Luther King referred to his own race as "Negro" if I wanted to defend its modern usage.
On 12/28/11 8:07 PM, Ryan Kaldari wrote:
Yes, the traditional usage has been predominantly masculine, but in modern usage, "they" is the dominant form. See my reply at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Gender-neutral_language#She_befo...
This is also not entirely relevant. Manuals of style *prescribe* usages in formal language, rather than describing common usages. Some of the things you can find in the English Wikipedia's manual of style are actually quite uncommon in everyday writing, but still sound policy.
On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:06 AM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari@wikimedia.org <mailto:rkaldari@wikimedia.org>> wrote: I responded to the inquiry and replaced all the gendered pronouns at issue with singular they. On a related note, I'm very disappointed to learn that the Chicago Manual of Style (which provided the basis for the original Wikipedia Manual of Style) has stopped recommending the use of singular they. As the use of singular they has been steadily increasing since the 1960s (Pauwels 2003), it is curious that the Chicago Manual would be moving backwards. I have to wonder if there was some sort of political pressure involved. On a positive note, the 2011 edition of the New International Version Bible now uses singular they.
I don't think it was political in the sense you are imagining. They have a page in their FAQ about the issue: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Pronouns/Pronouns15.html. Briefly, the singular "they" was only ever endorsed in one edition, after which they changed their mind. Chicago does not disapprove of the singular "they"; rather, they essentially describe the controversy and refrain from taking a strong stance. The reason is pretty obvious: the singular "they" is justifiable for several reasons, but it can't really be justified on modern grammatical grounds---which is problematic since grammar tends to be somewhat important when it comes to formal writing.
On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:20 AM, Theo10011 <de10011@gmail.com <mailto:de10011@gmail.com>> wrote: And I defended the reverting editor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_language&action=historysubmit&diff=468184170&oldid=468179760 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_language&action=historysubmit&diff=468184170&oldid=468179760>). [...] I'm sure Dominic can correct me if I'm wrong on this one.
Since you asked... I kind of agree more with Theo here. I think the stance which most Wikipedians, including feminists, would agree to would be to adhere to the original author's language---like we do with regional spellings---with respect to singular "they" or "he or she", but to frown upon stylistic changes from one or the other solely due to an editor's preference (and certainly to always frown upon a generic "he").
Let's step back, though. To me, the more important issue here is that a new, possibly female, editor made an innocuous change in good faith and was reverted and branded a vandal. Whatever we think about the grammatical debate, it was not vandalism, and he or she (or they!) are a potential new editor we may have scared away. Our response should not simply be to forget about that and start a discussion about arcane policy, as if that's the solution. For example, I think you may have even given the impression to the new editor that the revert was justified because she didn't use the singular "they" (your "fix"), Ryan(!). Looking at the reverter's talk page history, this seems to be a pattern. We'll do more to make this project a more welcoming place to women and everyone else by addressing such antisocial and unwelcoming behavior than we will by debating between "he or she" or "she and he" and the singular they---both of which, it should be mentioned, are relatively gender neutral when compared to the generic "he" alternative.
Dominic