Using the masculine for a mixed-gender group amounts to depict women as an exception, regardless of whether you want to or not: "If you have a group half of whose members are A`s and half of whose members are B`s and if you call the group C, then A`s and B`s may be equal members of group C. But if you call the group A, there is no way that B`s can be equal to A`s within it. The A`s will always be the rule and B`s will always be the exception—the subgroup, the subspecies, the outsiders." Alma Graham (1974)