English doesn't distinguish between male and female because it's important, it does so because it is sexist. Read this[1] to see what it would be like if our language were racist instead, and then you might see that sexist/racist analogies are valid.

Will we ever reach a gender-neutral English language? Not in the near term, but it's worth being aware of.

[1] http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html