Back in the dark ages of the early 1980s, I wrote an essay as an entry in a competition to win a scholarship to an international conference in Geneva.  My entry was successful - even if the conference was largely rather dull, not least as my employer had dictated which sessions I must attend.  Having drafted my essay - which was something about the role of the engineer I think - I passed it to my training manager, a gruff man in his late fifties.  His one comment was that I had referred to engineers only as 'male' and he said, "you should use the feminine".  At the time I didn't really 'get' it; inclusive language was unknown and 'the male includes the female'.

Today I was reading a document written by someone I respect greatly that referred to ministers exclusively as male, and I saw red!  If an organisation claims to affirm women ministers (and this one does, albeit belatedly) then it can't simply refer to ministers as he.  I absolutely would not wish to replace all male language with all female language, two wrongs don't make a right, but surely to goodness we could have 'his/her' 'she/he' 's/he' or even 'their'... it's not rocket science, but words are powerful and so long as ministers are referred to only in the masculine nothing will change.

Here endeth the rant!