Gender of Certain Words
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The English language contains very few nouns that have a masculine and a feminine version. For example, a host is masculine and a hostess is feminine.Some other examples are widow (m.) and widower (f.), actor (m.) and actress (f.), salesman (f.) and saleswoman (f.).Nowadays, however, gender-specific words are avoided, especially those that describe a profession and end in -man. Instead prefer the neutral term person.These are called gender-neuter nouns.Some examples are are salesperson, letter-carrier (former mailman, mail-woman), firefighter (former fireman, fire-woman) and flight attendant (former steward, stewardess).
