[chrix]

yes it is correct to use "es" for Mädchen. But there's a tendency to still use "sie" instead.

As far as the generic singular use goes, yes, you can do it, but there's no general rule, and it can be a minefield too, especially with more feministically minded people who'd insist on "Lehrerin". I personally tend to differentiate between gender-specific forms in the singular. In the plural, it's complicated. There's a reason why in university some people prefer to use "die Studierenden" and "die Lehrenden" instead of "die Studenten" and "die Dozenten", because a gerund doesn't differentiate gender in the plural

[atitarev]

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But there's a tendency to still use "sie" instead.

I agreed with that, only said that "es" is still more common for little vs young (older) girls, it's natural because "das Kind" is a neuter too.

This linguistic fight hasn't reached Russia, although Russian women enjoyed equal rights even in the Communist times. The Russian feminists don't fight over linguistic terms. I would say, they are different from Western feminists in many senses. For example, they prefer to be treated as ladies (open door, offer seat, etc.), stay feminine but they want equal rights. Note that many were happy in Russia to drop genderless товарищ (továrišč) - "comrade" for more gender-specific words. With Russian, it's even more complicated to be gender neutral - as adjectives (even as attributes) and past tense verbs have genders. However, unlike English, the instructions and rules are less personal. Instead of saying: "add some salt ", "some salt is added" is said, instead of "try not.." use "should be avoided", etc. The pronoun "you" is seldom used in guides, manuals, etc. Gender has penetrated too deeply into the language, so I don't know if the linguistic fight over how to use gender-specific personal pronouns or gender-specific words will be important for Russia. There are some established rules and I think most people are happy, both men and women. I can see more often "he or she", "he/she" in translations from English but many people I know consider it a bad style. The common approach is to either rephrase to make more generic or use "he" and masculine words.