English used to default to "he" for a person of unspecified gender, and to build gender directly into job titles — "chairman," "policeman," "mailman." Neither convention reflects reality anymore, and both are easy to write around without any loss of clarity or naturalness.
Singular "they" for an unspecified individual has been standard English usage for centuries (Shakespeare and Jane Austen both used it) and is now endorsed by every major style guide, including the Chicago Manual of Style and the APA. It's the cleanest fix — no awkward "he or she," no clunky rewriting.
Most of these neutral alternatives are now more common in professional and journalistic writing than the gendered originals, so this isn't just a courtesy — it also reads as more current.
"He or she" is grammatically fine but gets clunky fast, especially if repeated across a document. Options besides singular "they":
Gender-neutral language isn't about avoiding all reference to gender — it's about not baking an unnecessary assumption into a sentence where the person's gender is unknown, irrelevant, or variable. When you do know someone's gender (a specific person you're writing about), use the pronouns that apply to them as normal.
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