http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Generic_he
Anything else is just politically correct nonsense.
Interestingly wikipedia also states "In the 19th century, grammarians in England petitioned the British Parliament to declare gender-indeterminate pronouns as 'he' rather than 'they', which was common usage at the time. "
The english language is far from a codified, logically consistent system.
Just as frustrating is writing that switches pronoun gender when referring to ostensibly the same person. However describing some operation between two people "Alice and Bob" it can improve clarity to make both people belong to different genders.
As to using she it's very common convention these days in some domains. Many books on games use that for example (chess, bridge, go, poker - you need to a pronoun for black/white/last to act player there ). I also saw some computer science books using it. At this point I would say it's so common that it becomes part of the language. I personally like it although I can see how it raises eyebrows when encountered for the first time :)
It's not a matter of being grammaticaly incorrect or correct, but rather to imply that for this example, the programmer is female. It's goal seems to be inclusion. The other reason is that perhaps that the programmer the author thought about when writing this is a lady.
It's a simple method to get people thinking about issues :)
Of course you may argue that this convention is evil, as a product of political oppression etc. etc.
And I'm not even questioning that - my point is that this is beyond the point. Even if it's true, it doesn't mean it has to be brought up everywhere all the time.
I'd like to be able to read an article on programming (or any other neutral subject) without an unrelated political or social agenda being shoved in my face, in whatever form.
If somebody says "to hell with your pet peeves, this is more important and you're probably a bigot anyway", that's fine to me - it's a matter of taste.
It gets on my nerves more when people pretend not to get the point at all (for the sake of polemics of course). "The use of the word she? Why on Earth would you think it sticks out? Of course if one becomes a programmer, then as a programmer she bears certain responsibilities. I can't see what you mean? I'm stumped? Why can't you read on - you're stupid, huh?" (as aaren subtly hinted in reply to my previous comment)
Unless your point is that you're tired of it coming out as an explicit point for discussion, as in this current thread of the conversation. That's optional to the core of the effort.
It's not much of a point then ;)
If it even did some good to anyone. But all this linguistic ritual smells of magical thinking to me. The idea that if you change the usus and call things differently, they will change. It's pushing on a string.
Basically it's another incarnation of Facebook's "liking this picture will end world hunger" :)
No, fixing the world is not that simple. Just you wait, gender inequality - I'll replace all the "he"s with "she"s on my blog. Ouch that's tough blow, I can only hope my misogyne silicone bracelet will shield me!
"Unless your point is that you're tired of it coming out as an explicit point for discussion, as in this current thread of the conversation. That's optional to the core of the effort."
If one decides to be importunate and pushy (ever had that friend who wouldn't talk about anything else that 9/11 conspiracy, for example - be it at work, at lunch, parties...?) - fine, but don't be surprised if it creates backlash and is counter-effective on occasions. It's a trade-off that should be weighed in. You're free to use that tactic just as I'm free to comment on it :)
Why the use of the word "she" ? I see a lot of articles written where the undefined person will be a she. I speak french, and "person" is a feminine name, so you can say about a person "she", but why in English ? Especially when in male dominated jobs like programming. A programmer is likely to be a he than a she, so why try this hard to be politically correct.