Take a moment to consider this riddle: A man and his son are in a car accident and the man dies instantly. The son is taken to the hospital for an emergency operation. However, the doctor enters the room and exclaims, “I can’t operate on this boy; he is my son!”  How is this possible?

For many, this is hardly a riddle because the answer is so obvious – the doctor is the boy’s mother.

Unfortunately, research has shown that a majority of people can’t figure this problem out. Gender bias clouds our thoughts and we automatically assume that ‘doctor’ means male. I believe this is a result of various reinforcing actions,. One of these actions is our use of gendered pronouns as shortcuts in writing and speech.

While reading Freud in class recently, I noticed the usage of ‘he’ to refer to an arbitrary person.

It is only within the past few decades that teachers and professors have taught against using male-oriented terms and pronouns in academic works. Unfortunately, this is woven into the fabric of our society — our Declaration reads “all men are created equal.”

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Hence, when students are faced with churning out writing assignments, it is easy for us to mindlessly write with a gender bias. We might say, “to complete the reaction, he should wait ten minutes”, rather than, “to complete the reaction, one should wait ten minutes.”

Therefore, is it wise to focus more on gender neutrality in conversation? Actually, I think there’s a better option for reversing the trend of ‘he.’ I’ve found that the use of ‘one,’ or ‘s/he’ or any other gender neutral phrasing can be scanned over just as easily as the use of ‘he.’ Using these pronouns does nothing to oppose the gender biases of our times; it simply appeases the bland tastes of properness.

Conversely, if we desire to reduce unconscious gender biases, we should actively seek to use ‘she’ wherever possible. This may be a bit jarring, but it promotes equality much faster than passive neutrality.

This tactic is like affirmative action for gendered pronouns. We have to lift up the side that dealt with hindrances and harmful customs in order to reach true equality.

My hope is that, someday, the arbitrary person is just as easily thought of as ‘she’ or ‘he.’  At the same time, I hope when I ask someone the riddle of the doctor, she cannot understand why I call it a riddle.