NPR reporting style guide

[FranTastic444]

Reading this NPR article , one sentence stood out -

How will this change real estate commissions ?
For decades, the norm in this country has been for the person selling a home to pay both her own agent and the buyer's agent.

I presume that this was a deliberate choice by the (male) journo (rather than an incorrect autocorrect for a misspell of 'their'). I couldn't find anything online regarding this specific instance in the NPR writing style guideline. I know there is a long tradition of using the masculine term in such circumstances (see link below), but for some reason I liked the use of 'her' in this context.

Came across this interesting viewpoint on Stack Exchange.

Traditionally, male examples are used in English. The example person is a "he" and that is that. In English, the human race is traditionally called "mankind", a person fallen off a ship is "man overboard", tending to your job is "manning your post" and so on.

However, that kind of speaking and writing tends to make women feel excluded. So this is why we use he or she for some unspecified person, or they.

But here is another strategy you can use in writing. Simply use masculine pronouns in some examples, and feminine ones in others. In some sections of the document, make the user female and use she and her (consistently: do not change the user from being a he in one sentence to a she in a related sentence):

The user can determine her name.

Then in some other sections, make the user he. This way you can avoid creating a sense that women are included, while avoiding repetitions of his or her, and without resorting to they and their. Moreover, compared to using they, you create a more active sense that women are included.

Although using plural third person pronouns like they and their to refer to a single person is widespread and acceptable, it does not sound quite as good as using as singular pronoun for one person. At least, subjectively speaking, not to everyone.

[Mouse]

I am not sure there is a right answer to this. If you go with the "He" you may be correct in the "Mankind" sense but alienating half of your readers. However if you write examples using "He" and "Her" you have to be so careful in stereotyping Male/Female jobs or roles in your examples. So say you were referring to a firefighter, you would have to use a "her" as an example and similar a nurse example would have to be a "He". The problem then is to some parts of society your writing would come over as too alien to their expectations.
When I am conversing with my clients I tend to use the "He / Her" constructs in my speech as much as possible. So talking about a clients kitchen, I would be sure to acknowledge the cooking will be done by either him or her. Same when discussing with a couple, you use the term "partner" rather than assume "wife", "husband" or any other relationship.
I work with a number of US companies and sometimes we get representatives coming over to train us dealers on new stuff. I remember one guy lecturing us and every example he used was non inclusive. So women were always in the kitchen and only men were interested in the tech. I certainly wasn't about to let him anyway near any of my clients.

[Seb]

In Swedish they did add a new construct a few years back: in between he(han) and she(hon) but it still feels weird both to use and read, it rolls oddly of the tounge. The s/he would be "hen", so its really pretty well thought out. Its probably only a matter of getting used to.

I always use companion when taking about whomever came in with my parents, its impossible to know if its a partner, friend, relative or neighbor that came along to the hospital.

[STEVIE]

In Swedish they did add a new construct a few years back: in between he(han) and she(hon) but it still feels weird both to use and read, it rolls oddly of the tounge. The s/he would be "hen", so its really pretty well thought out. Its probably only a matter of getting used to..

HI Seb
From my dim and distant past "hen" in Swedish h one(1) in English.
Since I am number one in my own universe, I quite like it.
One problem, hen in Scotland is a colloquial term of address for a cis female.
Steve

[Barleymower]

I think there's no choice here than to put it down as a typo. Even if they deliberately used 'her' instead of the traditional 'he', I don't see a massive problem?
I'm more concerned with the persistent and ongoing denigration of men.

[Seb]

@Steeve, did'nt think of that, one is "en" or "ett" depending on good knows what rule.

[STEVIE]

@Steeve, did'nt think of that, one is "en" or "ett" depending on good knows what rule.

"Hett" works even better Seb, no confusion.
Let me try some Swedish counting en tva tres fyra fem, please forgive my spelling.
Steve

[Seb]

Haha, and "hett" means "hot"

Close, for counting we would use "ett" två, tre etc

Ett glas vin men en flaska vin: one glass of wine but one bottle of wine

Fortunately its just one that is confusing, not like Japanese that counts different things with different words or Danish that its just completely illogical.