Board Thread:Wiki management/@comment-26899500-20161011223922/@comment-5939269-20161012111512

The problem with gender neutrality on this wiki is that we want to ignore some customary editing rules of wiki's in general. Generally, we want to be referring to things with the neutral pronouns of "it" and "its" except in a few special cases.

I'm going to take all of this from wikipedia which actually has in depth and stated reasons as to when, why, and where they use such language.

The Manual of Style section on gender-neutral language on Wikipedia states, "Use gender-neutral language where this can be done with clarity and precision." Situations this does not apply to include: Gender-neutral language should not interfere with the readers' ability to understand the material. Precision means that the reader has correctly acquired the facts. The opposite of precision is vagueness. Clarity means that the reader understands what you have written. The opposite of clarity is confusion. If the reader is confused or did not learn the material because of vagueness or circumlocutions, then the material needs to be re-written to comply with the Manual of Style's requirement for clear and precise language.
 * Direct quotations (e.g. "All men are created equal" should not be altered to "All people are created equal")
 * The titles of works (e.g. A Man on the Moon should not be altered to A Human Being on the Moon)
 * Proper names of things (e.g. Craftsmen Industries should not be altered to Artisan Industries)
 * Cases where all referents are of one gender (e.g. when talking about an all-female school it is unnecessary to alter "If any student broke that rule, she was severely punished" to "Any student who broke the rule was severely punished")
 * When the subject prefers a gendered term. This includes a woman preferring a masculine term, for example: "From 1998 to 2000, she [Esther Dyson] was the founding chairman (not chairwoman or chairperson) of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.".

Different situations may require different approaches. For example, when speaking of isolated individuals, then pluralizing the sentences may not be the ideal solution.
 * Do not omit gender when it is directly relevant: "The pregnant woman refused to be examined by a male nurse, but accepted help from a female nurse."
 * Do not omit gender when the result is pointlessly vague: "Queen Elizabeth II is the mother of Charles, Prince of Wales" rather than "Queen Elizabeth II is a parent of Charles, Prince of Wales"
 * Do not use gender-neutral speech when it will confuse the reader. For example, it is generally best to write about "pregnant women", rather than "pregnant men and women". Although a few pregnant adults do not self-identify as being women (e.g., some transgender and intersex people), the reader will be confused and distracted by the statement that human men can be pregnant.
 * Conversely, be careful to use gender-neutral language when gendered language will confuse a typical reader. For example, avoid speaking of teachers or shop assistants as being either women (even if this occupation is mostly female in your culture) or as men (even if this occupation is mostly male in your culture).
 * Do not use gender-neutral speech when it gives undue emphasis to tiny minorities. If writing about nuns, it is appropriate to use feminine language, even though there may be a nun who is also transgender. Similarly, when writing about male pregnancy, it is appropriate to use masculine language, even though most pregnancies occur in females. Use the language that is most suitable for that specific context.
 * The sex and gender distinction may be helpful in choosing words for some subjects.
 * Generally speaking, prefer female and male to make statements that are exclusively about anatomy and biological sex, and for writing about non-human species: "During embryonic development, the gonads are the precursors of the testes in males and ovaries in females".
 * Use men, women, boys, and girls in all other situations: "Women are more likely to die from heart disease or stroke than from cancer".