Languages exhibit varying degrees of complexity in their gender systems. Some, like Finnish and English, convey gender distinctions solely through lexical variation (e.g., äiti–isä, mother–father, respectively), while others feature intricate agreement systems encompassing pronouns, adjectives, predicate nominatives, and verbs. Further, some languages already employ gender-neutral pronouns within their traditional linguistic norms (e.g., Finnish uses hän for ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘it’) while others have had to create new pronouns (e.g., hen in Swedish) and new agreement systems (e.g., elle and the corresponding -e gender morpheme in Spanish) that exist beyond gender binaries. Relatedly, languages employing grammatical gender often use the so-called generic masculine to refer to mixed-gender groups of people, presenting issues for women who go linguistically unrepresented in such constructions which have prompted calls and attempts for reform. But where innovation towards inclusion occurs also come issues in using and teaching novel linguistic forms. This article uses the Spanish gender system and its novel inclusive forms, along with some examples from other languages, as a case study for answering two key questions that world language and second language educators must answer as they approach inclusive languages: What do I tell my nonbinary students when they ask what linguistic options they have? and How do I teach language without enforcing gender stereotypes? Recommendations i

... generic masculine . The generic masculine refers to the tradition of using male - gendered terms to refer to mixed - sex groups ... pronouns to refer to mixed - sex groups ( e.g. , a teacher announcing , “ Each student should sharpen his ... The Psychology of Sex and Gender meets the needs of gender science today, providing students with fresh, contemporary examples, balanced coverage of men and women, and a grounding in psychological science. The dynamic author team of Jennifer K. Bosson, Joseph A. Vandello, and Camille E. Buckner presents classic and cutting-edge research findings, historical contexts, examples from popular culture, cross-cultural universality and variation, and coverage of nonbinary identities, for a full, vibrant picture of the field. In keeping with the growing scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), the authors ask students in every chapter to identify and evaluate their own myths and misconceptions, participate in real-world debates on topics at the forefront of the field, and stop to think critica

Language users often infer a person’s gender when it is not explicitly mentioned. This information is included in the mental model of the described situation, giving rise to expectations regarding the continuation of the discourse. Such gender inferences can be based on two types of information: gender stereotypes (e.g., nurses are female) and masculine generics, which are grammatically masculine word forms that are used to refer to all genders in certain contexts (e.g., To each his own). In this eye-tracking experiment (N = 82), which is the first to systematically investigate the online proc

calls the generic use of masculine pronouns "the traditional view, now widely assailed as sexist". The earliest known attempt to create a new gender-neutral Singular they is an epicene (gender-neutral) third-person pronoun in English. It typically occurs with an indeterminate antecedent, to refer to an unknown person, or to refer to every person of some group, in sentences such as: This use of singular they had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural they. Singular they has been criticized since the mid-18th century by prescript "If any one did not know it, it was his own fault." "Every person who turns this page has his own little diary." The earliest known explicit recommendation by a grammarian to use the generic he rather than they in formal English is Ann Fisher's mid-18th century A New Grammar assertion that "The Masculine Person answers to the general Name, which comprehends both Male and Female; as, any Person who knows what he says." (Ann Fisher as quoted by Ostade) Nineteenth-century grammarians insisted on he as a gender-neutral pronoun on the grounds of number agreement, while rejecting "he or she" as clumsy, and this was widely adopted: e.g. in 1850, the British Parliament passed an act which provided that, when used in acts of Parliament "words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed and taken to include females". Baskervill and Sewell mention the common use of the singular they in their An English Grammar for the Use of High School, Academy and College Class of 1895, but prefer the generic he on the basis of number agreement. Baskervill gives a number of examples of recognized authors using the singular they, including: