These Feminists obviously mean business and it seems they're winning.

ON SEXISM, FAIRNESS AND GENDER RIGHTS

For years now, the academic community has warned that in all academic writings, proformal reference to neuter nouns such as BABY must not be selective of the masculine gender, HE. Academics are advised to write, for instance:

THE BABY WANTED ITS FOOD
instead of

THE BABY WANTED HIS FOOD

The latter, it would be found, may be considered sexist, as it gives preference to one gender over the other.

Also in the case of indefinite pronouns - singular or plural - academics are advised to employ the plural proform paradigm, THEY. This means they should write, for instance:

EVERYONE KNOWS THEIR RIGHT
instead of

EVERYONE KNOWS HIS RIGHT

While the former may yet be grammatically and semantically controversial, it is clearly not sexist, as it favours both gender choices.

However, one issue that remains inadequately addressed is the preferred proform for neuter nouns like INDIA, COMPANY, etc. Academics are known to make a choice of the feminine gender in this case and they remain unquestioned. They write, for instance:

INDIA HAS ADDRESSED HER POLITICAL ISSUES
instead of

INDIA HAS ADDRESSED ITS POLITICAL ISSUES

While the choice of THEIR may give rise to unnecessary grammatical-number debate, one cannot deny the possibility of HIS. ITS too may not be appropriate, since in this case, INDIA is not the country as a geographical space but as a population and government. (In rare cases too - for native speakers of English - it may refer to the landscape).

The question then is "why HER and not HIS?"