English, thankfully, is a language without many gender-related problems, but some do exist, and being gender neutral in MBA application essays can be important. In general, a key way to avoid such problems is to pluralize\u2014to talk about groups rather than individuals. Consider the following examples:<\/p>\n
a. \u201cToday\u2019s manager must be financially literate to do his job well.\u201d<\/p>\n
b. \u201cToday\u2019s manager must be financially literate to do his\/her job well.\u201d<\/p>\n
c. \u201cToday\u2019s managers must be financially literate to do their job well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In (a), the sentence is poor because it is not gender neutral. Simply put, avoid writing \u201chis\u201d and assuming that the manager is a man. When you are talking about a hypothetical manager and don\u2019t know that manager\u2019s gender, you cannot assume the manager is a man any more than you can assume she is a woman.<\/p>\n
Sentence (b) is better because it shows that the writer is sensitive to gender issues and, therefore, has made sure to insert \u201c\/her\u201d after \u201chis.\u201d However, using \u201chis\/her,\u201d \u201chim\/her,\u201d \u201che\/she\u201d (or \u201cs\/he\u201d) and other such constructions can make essays unnecessarily cumbersome and can also disrupt an essay\u2019s style or rhythm for the reader.<\/p>\n
Sentence (c) is, therefore, the best of the three sentences. Words that entail gender considerations when singular lose such considerations when pluralized: \u201chis\/her\u201d becomes \u201ctheir,\u201d \u201chim\/her\u201d becomes \u201cthem,\u201d \u201che\/she\u201d or \u201cs\/he\u201d becomes \u201cthey.\u201d Pluralizing gender-laden pronouns will allow you to avoid this awkward problem\u2014and, as you may have noticed, will save word count as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"