The use of gender specific language in "The God Delusion"

In his book "The God Delusion", Richard Dawkins goes to much effort to argue that the English language all too often seems to exclude women. In support of his case he cites such examples as mankind, all men are created equal, one man one vote, etc. This argument is particularly amplified on page 140 of the paperback version.

Obviously, to an extent, he has a point. Nevertheless, he neglects to mention the standard English phrases which ,whilst excluding women, can hardly be said to favour men. Such phrases would include "man's inhumanity to his fellow man" and "the evil that men do".

Equally, there are many English phrases where the feminine is assumed for no reason that seems obvious like "mother earth" and "mother nature". Both these expressions would be construed to be positive rather than negative.

Dawkins is right when he says that some other languages are less gender specific in their general descriptions of the human race. For example the Russian word Человечество would be literally translated as human kind not mankind.