> In the 18th century, it was suggested as a gender-neutral pronoun, and was thereafter often prescribed in manuals of style and school textbooks until around t

> In the 18th century, it was suggested as a gender-neutral pronoun, and was thereafter often prescribed in manuals of style and school textbooks until around the 1960s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_(pronoun)#Gender https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_(pronoun)#Gender (Wikipedia sources https://web.archive.org/web/20120530024829/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20120530024829/http://www.nytime...) Of course: > More recently, this use of he has become less accepted, and singular they is becoming the dominant form But linguistic change isn't a binary process, nobody flips a switch and everyone across the world updates their habits, so it takes time. While gender neutral he was not encouraged when I was in school, singular they was very much discouraged, with "he or she" being the taught solution for a single person of unknown gender. Of course, in today's world that also is going out of favour.