In the German language, there is a grammatical rule that is called Generisches Maskulinum (English: generic masculine). It says that when you want to address a group that consists of people of both genders, you only use the male word even though you know there are females there.
German examples:
- Der Lehrer - the teacher (male)
- Die Lehrerin - the teacher (female)
- Die Lehrer - the teachers (only male, or male and female)
- Die Lehrerinnen - the teachers (only female)
If I want to write a text about a person whose gender is unknown, is it semantically (not opinion based) okay just to call them a "he" or is it semantically wrong?
Note: I do not want to her opinions about "gender equality" or something like that. I only want to know if it is semantically correct to only use the male form for a generic person whose sex does not matter.